After what seems to be about a month, or maybe more, I am delighted to say that my second piece of cast glass is out of the kiln and ‘resting’. The process has taken twice as long as it should have as the piece required re-casting after setting additional glass on the first attempt. (I had underestimated the amount of glass required to make the ‘surface pool’ over the shadow form.) The pieces looks great, and I will see more detail when I remove the mould material on Monday. Glass does not like variations in volume so the form that I made is particularly challenging as it goes from large to small volumes very rapidly. I am incredibly grateful to Ulrika for her skill at programming the kiln, especially the cooling phase which is the most critical.
Although this second cast* is now finished I will only be showing the first one in the show that opens here next week. The glass will be presented embedded in a sheet of plywood. Ideally I would like to install the pieces directly in the floor however this was simply not realistic to attempt with my other commitments at the moment. I am rather pleased with the more sculptural solution that the plywood provides. I am also rather pleased with myself for working out how to make, and fit, supports for the uncut sheet (2.5 x 1.25 m) that tip it up at an angle while making sure that it is secure. Some of those 33 year old geometry lessons came in really useful while I was scrabbling about on the floor working out exactly how to position the three different height legs.
The next day was the first of my final two in Gothenburg. It was really interesting to see the students’ presentations. I was impressed by the range of their individual projects and where the projects have taken them. During the discussions after each presentation I was often reminded that coming from fine art, and the UK, gives me a different perspective which I think students found both challenging and enriching. My enthusiasm for them making ‘discursive objects’ seemed a good counterpoint to others’ responses about the technical aspects of textile processes and the aesthetics of pattern. It was the combination of these lines of discussion that I hope will enable all the students to make critical and informed choices about how they tackle their future assignments and projects.
In the evening Karin and I discussed which London colleges she and her colleagues might visit, we found a short promotional film about what was Central St Martins presented by Caroline Broadhead. As part of the University of the Arts London a student attending a course at the new Kings Cross building is one of over 4000 students registered at the school, Karin remarked that she grew up in town which had less inhabitants! The film is very slick and well produced, mentions all the now famous former students and the international fashion house where (nameless) students are now working … it was all so very very promotional! A timely reminder of how different things can become when students pay for their education and become art schools begin to operate like multi-national corporations. Meanwhile here in Stockholm, at Mejan, students prepare for their MA show after five years of free education and in the knowledge that most if not all of them will receive some kind of graduate stipendium from the school to help them continue their practice ….
http://www.kkh.se/index.php/en/exhibitions/spring-…
*this second piece is actually in the first mould that I made, so I think of it as the first piece.
