Glass has enabled so many milestones in history, from the telescope to microscope, high-speed communications and that smartphone in your hand. Yet, only very few contemporary artists utilise it’s potential in their creative narratives.
Blow Your Sculpture’s is an initiative to break the proverbial mould, to introduce glass, it’s malleability and endless possibilities to a new crowd of creatives. Artists, sculptors, designers, architects and other innovators are invited to make a mould or “invent” ways of shaping glass in its molten state.
Under direction of professional glass blowers and experts from our local, South African glass scene, each participant is guided to bring their ideas to life. With almost no creative constraints, other than size and volume, this project has revealed unpredictable exciting results, expanding new horizons for our local hand-made glass industry.
Blow Your Sculpture’s third collaborative iteration took place from January till March 2019 at Smelt Glass Studio with all twelve artists exhibiting their works at the Pretoria Art Museum from March till end April.
A big thank you goes out to Martli Jansen van Rensburg and Mike Hyam who both own and run Smelt Glass Studio at Victoria Yards in Johannesburg. They made sure every participating artist had their glass sculptures blown, cast or poured.
Blow Your Sculpture is preparing for the next chapter, promoting #SouthAfricanGlass in 2021…
Links:
Blow Your Sculpture, Facebook Page
Blow Your Sculpture, Instagram
Blow Your Sculpture 2019 Catalogue
Other articles in my blog:
BYS2019 Walkabout 30 March 2019: