The Lathe Riders brought cold work into the limelight at this year’s Glass Art Society conference in Berlin. For the first time in history, cold work got centre stage as the opening demo at a GAS conference.
Scrolling through the abyss of my digital addiction frustrates me. I need to un-frame my mind. This unrelenting pressure to ‘create content’ is driving me up the wall. Maybe I’ve found a way to do it.
Pocket Lenses developed over years. They have become an analogue synonym of our digitally engaged society. Lenses were a natural conclusion to the work I do. Sculpting solid (and sometimes blown) glass by grinding and polishing I invoke light to do crazy things. Light is all around us. It is the substance (or wave) that informs us of our surrounding, bouncing off everything we see.
This idea of an alternate reality inside your pocket is not new. Most of us are aquatinted with that digital version – the dumbfone.
One of my highlight of 2017 is to have been part of Ngwenya Glass’ renowned workshop again. The last time I was in the the Kingdom of Swaziland to make glass was 2010, for the VuvuAfrica project to celebrate South Africa’s Soccer World Cup and previous workshops.