Material Iterations, 2015
Center For Craft Creativity and Design, Asheville, NC
Proposal / Description
Satellite images are exponential in nature. By comparing images taken days, months, and years apart you can see the effects of human presence. Revelations also occur at each interval of zooming out and zooming in. What I am interested in exploring at CCCD is whether switching materials as you would switch a lens can make similar revelations. During the takeover, I will be displaying two finished pieces and working with partners to create a new iteration of each of those pieces in alternate materials. The finished pieces are quite formal in that they use traditional materials such as glass, watercolor, and oil paints. The new pieces will be made of non-traditional materials such as, water, plastic, wet clay, plant material, projected light, and synthetic stuffing. As a consequence of switching materials, I will also be changing the processes by which the work is made. Who knows what will happen? In a sense, I have switch the “lens” once by recreating the original satellite images in traditional materials. I would like to see what happens when the lens is switched again.
Press Release
When comparing satellite images of earth taken days, months, and years apart, one can begin to visibly trace the effect of humans on the planet. These images act as a starting point for glass artist Jennifer Bueno, who references maps of air pollution or algal bloom in her formal work. By combining hot glass, watercolor, and oil paint, Bueno creates highly aesthetic, sculptural pictures of environmental change.
In Material Iterations, Bueno will explore how switching materials, as you would switch a camera lens, can similarly lead to new discoveries or revelations about both environmental change as well as the creative process itself. During the takeover Bueno will create new versions of two of her completed works, “Air Pollution over China” and “Algae Bloom in Lake Erie.” These doppelgangers will be made out of alternative materials, such as water, plastic, wet clay, plant material, projected light, and synthetic stuffing. Bueno’s experiment offers a material exploration of what can happen when an artist changes their perspective.
Hexa-, 2007
Barnacle covered driftwood, mirrored blown glass, wood, steel, mirror, solder, flooring, 8’x 8’x 3’
Welcome, 2004
plastic, plywood, blown glass, water pump, household sponges, plastic curlers, vinyl hardware, foam, old rug, pond water, duckweed, 18’x 15’x 36”
Description
The structure of Welcome is very similar to Perforation except for the addition of a homemade filter system and a rug instead of a cushion. When you first approach the domes in the back resemble a city skyline with a field of green in front similar to the Emerald City in Wizard of OZ. As you walk around you can view the sewer/ filter system and make your way to the rug. There you can observe the domes more closely as the scale shifts to a more intimate level.
Fish Highway, 2004
Blown glass, plastic tubing, plate glass, neon, aquarium plant, water, aquarium catfish, 43”x 26”x 56”
Description
A large blown glass fishbowl with two spouts was fashioned with a long plastic tube. The catfish inside would periodically swim down the tube and sometimes rest there. Catfish are bottom feeders and in the wild will burrow down tunnels.
Cumulus, 2004
Plexiglas, wood, aerator, plastic tubing, bubble wand, pond water, blown glass, wood frog eggs, 15”x 19”x 53”
Description
Wood frog eggs were gathered from a local pond and kept in the water from which they were gathered. An aerator provided the necessary circulation. The eggs were held in a blown glass goblet made with many cups. Once the eggs began to hatch they were returned to their pond.
Perforation, 2004
Pond water, duckweed, plastic, plywood, fabric, stuffing, blown glass, 56” x 61”x 31”
Description
The tiny plant called duckweed floats on the surface of water creating a pure plane of green. Blown glass domes suspend a cross section of the water by a vacuum inside. The domes sit on small pillars so that the water inside can circulate. This is crucial because the duckweed provide a home for many aquatic creatures that move about under its cover. The red cushion provides a place to kneel and observe.
Blowing Softly, 2004
Plate glass, plastic, pond water, duckweed, blown glass, silicone, 48”x 48”x 45”
Description
Inside a large Petri dish small half-spheres of blown glass float in pond water containing duckweed, plant matter, and tiny pond creatures such as snails, scuds, leeches, slugs etc. The glass bends the surface of the water to make a lens. By blowing softly the viewer can move the lenses around to view the life inside.
Big Made of-, 2002
Wood, plastic, rope, polyfill, 5’x 9’ x10’
Contain, 2003
Plastic, string, water, 9ft. x 9ft. x 9in.
Measured Reach, 2002
Mixed media performance, 20 ft. x 9 ft. x 2.5ft.
Description
Rings are gathered on fingers and slowly draw sleeves inward. Meanwhile tape measures emerge from buckets below as they are pulled upward by strings attached to the sleeves. Once all of the rings were gathered a quick and sudden release of the rings let loose a loud crash as the weights descended back into the buckets.
Garden Sequence, 1999
Fabric, bamboo, wire, blown and hot sculpted glass, waxes
Description
Light flowed from the Fabric Rose window down through tubes and into the glass orbs, which hung inside light filled fabric baskets. The orbs were later transplanted into dishes hanging on the sidewalls.
Breath/Touch, 1996
Blown glass, plastic tubing, fabric, wax
Description
The vessel over my heart has a sack that contracts with my breath allowing me to “feel” what is inside it with my breath.
Continuous Pull, 1996
Description
A large circle of string with feathers on it is threaded through oddly shaped glass funnels.