“ S o m e th in g can b e w e ll m ad e, b u t i f it d o esn 't
c a r r y itse l f as its o w n f o rm , th e n th e c raft
is w a s te d. T h a t ’s la rg e ly w h y I w o r k in c le a r
crysta l. T he form c o m es first.” — A lis o n B e r g er
still lifes, old scientific instrui
to create tim eless narratives. V
L ike her w ork, Berger radiat
45, she’s slim and elegant, w ith
“ T h e thread that runs through all m y w ork is light,” A lison Berger
explains. “ H ow light is contained and captured and reflected and
refracted , disappearing as it gets darker, com ing forw ard as p er-
haps abeam o f sun comes through. T h a t’s really the encapsulation
o f w hat w eaves everyth in g together.”
U sing glass as her prim ary medium and the past as her inspira-
tion, the L os A ngeles-based artist has explored her fascination
w ith light in a stunningly diverse and ever-evo lvin g body o f
w ork—vases, sculptures, draw ngs, lighting, site installations.
Blurring boundaries long before it becam e a trend, she’s m oved
easily and w ith considerable success betw een the w orlds o f art,
craft, design, architecture, fashion and film , w ith technical mas-
tery and a sure vision as her constants. She draw s from m yriad
influences and eras—fourth-century Rom an glass, baroque floral
ents, her ow n flea-m arket finds-
hatever the scale or form at, her
objective rem ains the same: h istory reinterpreted, concept dis-
tilled to essence.
tes a refined com plexity. A youthful
l
a pared-dow n, unfussy personal
style. H er manner com bines the expansive friendliness o f a native
T exan , the energy and intellectual intensity o f an erstw hile N ew
Yorker, and the m ellow openness o f the A ngeleno she has been for
some 15 years now.
L iv in g in l .a . she says, allow s her to be consistently “en vel-
oped in light.” Her studio, in a 1920s building in W est H ollyw ood,
is w hite-w alled and pristine y et warm and atm ospheric, rich in
architectural detail, a contem porary space redolent w ith vintage
charm . A ll around the reception/office area are her vessels and
objects-cram m ed in an antique cabinet or arranged on tabletops,
illum inated here and there by her light fixtures and by candles
she likes to burn even on sunny Southern C aliforn ia days, often
to create a quiet m ood w hen she’s draw ing (“ T h e pow er o f light-
ing,” she observes, “ is staggering” ). U pstairs is her im m aculate
w ork space, w ith d raw ing tables, m odels o f w ork in progress,
and a balcony overlooking a lushly overgrow n courtyard, a palm
tree, and beyond, postcard view s o f the H o llyw ood H ills.
She shows a visitor samples from her n ew collection o f hand-
blow n crystal vessels for the l .a . design em porium Blackm an
C ru z. T h e y ’re modern and d eceptively sim ple, exquisitely evoca-
tive, heavy in more ways than one. Some give the illusion o f being
filled w ith w ater. O ne has a thick folded lip and num ber fragm ents
etched onto it, suggesting an old beer bottle factory, a faded label >
