For this assignment, the prompt was to use principals of optics, which means to use light and shadow, to create optical illusions or effects in glass. At first, I was completely unsure with how to approach this assignment because I had never worked with light before. I spent several hours looking at other glass artists work with light, and I still had no ideas what I would do, especially given my beginner skill level. After speaking with my professor, I returned to a familiar place of inspiration: my family. I decided to utilize light as a metaphor for life, and the absence of light as death. I also wanted to have some viewer interaction in this piece, so I thought about how I could influence my audience to touch my piece. Next, taking into account my glass-blowing skills, I decided to make imperfect orbs, and emphasize their imperfection to convey ideas about my family’s personality. This project shows how I have progressed as a student of glass, and how I am thinking of the way glass interacts with other mediums and materials.
My two painted orbs represent my sister and I. I utilized acrylic paint to give more texture to these hot-blown and cold-worked pieces. The paint is meant to make the orbs look like fabric/denim because my mom had the walls of her bedroom painted like denim. They sit close together to represent how my sister and I became closer after my mom’s death.
My next purple orb represents my birth mom because her favorite color is lavender. This orb has a handle/”nose” because my mom is reliable and helpful, much like a handle on a glass object. This piece was difficult to work with because it was thinner in certain sections, where there is less color.
My last orb is a dark purple/black color because that represents death/dying to me. The orb is scarred and has many holes in it on one side, but the other it is perfect. My mom was in a lot of pain towards the end of her life, and this piece represents that.
The piece in the middle is my mom’s sweater, with lit disco balls hanging down, with hot sculpted glass hands poking out the sleeves, and a broken mirror underneath it. The disco balls represent my mothers cause of death: multisystem organ failure. During the presentation, I turned these lights and her orb’s light off to represent her death. The hands and the mirror are gold/red represent the spirituality I have gained after my mom’s death.
A lot of feedback I received about this piece was about the staging. Most viewers wished that there was less clutter, and that I focused on each individual element more, and removed the textile pieces because they were distracting. This was my first installation experience, so going into it, I had no idea what to do. I gained a lot of helpful critiques, and am currently working with the curators of the Gallatin Arts Festival to understand how to show my work more coherently in the future.
I am also experimenting with how to use textiles, glass, and light for my orbs, and if they can be become functional art, like a lamp. This is one iteration of my experiments with my birth mom’s orb.
Alexandra Faye Friedman 