2023
Blow-molded glass replicas kiln-molded, cut, and sanded; plaster
Several Stories in a Stone: 150 Years of Light in Valašské Meziříčí
Drawing on a 150 year history from the 1850’s to early 2000’s, this piece represents a selection of historical glass lights from the Czech-based S. Reich & Co. lighting company lineage that have been formed into “stone”. Reproduced from salvaged steel and remade wooden blow-molds, the piece was blown in the glass-working school (now the Glassmaking Secondary School in Valašské Meziříčí) that once trained workers for the now-dissolved company. Inspired by seeing layered sandstone in a local glass-sand quarry where one can read the layers of history, I then kiln-formed the lights together—like stone—using heat, pressure, and time. Fossilized amongst the layers are: mid-1800’s era petroleum lamps, a flame-shape rumored to have been used for lighting on the Titanic, 1950’s era linear textured sheaths from a theater, a 1930’s paper-like punctuated sphere and 1970’s era smooth chess piece replicas. The project embeds not only physical remnants from the lighting company in the form of reproduced glass lights, but also political, cultural, and technical shifts that occurred through the company’s life which swept through the world wars and dramatic swings of political systems. The resulting form is treated much like the commodification of stone by cutting and “book matching” the pieces, living somewhere between commodity and, like stone and its material derivative glass, a precious embodied record of history.
Many thanks to the Fulbright Commission and to the many who have shared their time, talents, and teaching in the Glass Design Studio at Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín and High-School for Applied Arts and Glassmaking in Valašské Meziříčí.
Drawing on a 150 year history from the 1850’s to early 2000’s, this piece represents a selection of historical glass lights from the Czech-based S. Reich & Co. lighting company lineage that have been formed into “stone”. Reproduced from salvaged steel and remade wooden blow-molds, the piece was blown in the glass-working school (now the Glassmaking Secondary School in Valašské Meziříčí) that once trained workers for the now-dissolved company. Inspired by seeing layered sandstone in a local glass-sand quarry where one can read the layers of history, I then kiln-formed the lights together—like stone—using heat, pressure, and time. Fossilized amongst the layers are: mid-1800’s era petroleum lamps, a flame-shape rumored to have been used for lighting on the Titanic, 1950’s era linear textured sheaths from a theater, a 1930’s paper-like punctuated sphere and 1970’s era smooth chess piece replicas. The project embeds not only physical remnants from the lighting company in the form of reproduced glass lights, but also political, cultural, and technical shifts that occurred through the company’s life which swept through the world wars and dramatic swings of political systems. The resulting form is treated much like the commodification of stone by cutting and “book matching” the pieces, living somewhere between commodity and, like stone and its material derivative glass, a precious embodied record of history.
Many thanks to the Fulbright Commission and to the many who have shared their time, talents, and teaching in the Glass Design Studio at Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín and High-School for Applied Arts and Glassmaking in Valašské Meziříčí.