Lantern (sketch below),
“ I c o lle c te d fireflie s as a k id g ro w in g up in
a two-part, blown crys-
K “
ffixture
T e x a s, and esse n tia lly th e lig h tin g I p ro d u ce
meant to give an “elec-
•
•
r 9
C 1
.
*
r
f
111
me candlelight-effect.
is a co n tin u u m or th e co n ta in ers th at h eld
th o se p o in ts o f lig h t.” — A lis o n B e r g er
A fte r continuing her architecture studies at Colum bia U niver-
sity, Berger w ent w est to becom e an assistant designer at Frank
G eh ry’s firm in Santa M onica. H er tim e there w as “ a very intense
learning curve, developing an architectural vocabulary o f fluidity,
and again, concentrating on light,” in projects she describes as “ lit-
tle jew els.” One day Philip Johnson came in to w ork w ith G eh ry
on a residence, and the tw o asked her to carve out the inside o f
a pear, im agining it as a guest house on the property.
D ecid in g to stay in
l .a .,
Berger next m oved into set design.
She had alw ays kept her hand in glassblow ing, and began m aking
pieces for use on various sets: a futuristic glass iv and vessels for
M adonna’s
Bedtime Story
music video; for the film
Tank Girl,
a
com puter monitor system inspired by the French m odernist archi-
tect Pierre Chareau. W h en the opportunity arose to join the art
d irectors’ union, she w as tem pted, but follow ed a gu t instinct to
pursue her art instead. “ Som ething in me w en t, ‘W ell, w hat have
I got to lose?” ’
O nce com m itted to being a full-tim e artist, Berger had a clear
sense o f how she w anted to m arket her glass objects. “ I didn’t
w ant m y stu ff to be next to a blue b ow l, because they w ould disap-
pear. I som ehow had this understanding that i f they w ere to be
sold, th ey had to be in couture areas o f shops like F red S egal or
Takashim aya or B ergdorf Goodm an or U ltim o, and they had to
be by them selves, in their ow n vehicle. W h a t w as great w as that
in these couture, boutique environm ents, th ey w ould have m3'
draw ings up, copies o f my sketchbook.”
Fashion’s elite took notice. Soon Com m e des Garçons com m is-
sioned her to do an installation at their T o k y o showroom . “A t the
time [the com pany’s founder] Rei K aw akubo w as selecting artists
to embod3' her season collection. For me, it w as about all these
layers o f transparency and translucency that I do in m3' w ork, and
that she w as also doing in her layering o f the clothes.” In a nod to
G iacom etti’s 1932 sculpture
The Palace at4
A .M .,
Berger built glass
cages to contain her pieces that jutted out into the sidew alk so
that “ people w ere stepping o ff the curb to avoid running into
them .” T h is w as follow ed by another prestige com m ission, design-
ing a line o f functional crystal w ares (b ow ls, cream ers, cruets
and other “heirlooms for the next generation” ) for Herm ès. A gain
lookin g to the past, B erger d rew on the Paris fashion house’s
humble beginnings as a saddle shop, aim ing to create designs that
w ould be, in essence, “ as simple and pure as a bridle for a horse.”
A b o u t seven years ago she began m aking light fixtu res, w ith
nostalgia as her departure point. “ I collected fireflies as a kid
060 american craft feb/m ardç
gro w in g up in T e x a s, and essentially the lighting I produce is
a continuum o f the containers that held those points o f light. It
keeps evolving and transform ing, but all my pieces are about low-
volum e light—alm ost solid-form blow n c o s ta l, faceted so that the
lens and the bulb are actually reduced. So you w alk into a room
and it’s this idea o f electric candlelight, atmospheric. And the shad-
ow cast, and how that changes throughout the da3', is as im portant
as the piece itself.”
Latel3' Berger is interested in doing more large-scale public art
and site-specific projects. For the C ooper-H ew itt N ational D esign
M useum triennial exhibition in 2006, she made a sculpture out
o f antique glass photo slides. “ I ’ve collected them for over 25 years
and never kn ew w hat to do w ith them . T h e y ’re so beautiful, so
intense. I just gave m yself the assignm ent to create a form for
them .” T h is turned out to be a suspended light box covered on all
four sides w ith a collage o f haunting, 100-year-old images. T h eir
collective im pact, says Berger, is “ a m em orial to the past, a cross
section o f architecture, art, agriculture, rural, urban, industrial.
A s you move around the piece, you get a sense that w hat they de-
pict is so vast.”
A recent com m ission, for a W allace N e ff house in
l .a .,
is based
on the astrolabe, a handheld device used centuries ago to chart the
stars. W h en she first set eyes on the space—a skylit atrium 25 feet
high and 10 feet w id e—B erger im m ediately pictured a boule form
in an observatory. T h e end result is a w ondrous construction in
glass and bronze, eight feet in diam eter, o f com plex rings that cast
intricate shadow s, and m agnifying lenses that “ take the sk3' and
hold it as you w alk through.”
H andw ork is integral to Berger’s w ork, but not the point o f it.
“ Som ething can be w ell m ade, but if it doesn’t carry itse lf as its
ow n form , then the craft is w asted,” she says. “ T h a t’s largely w hy
I w ork in clear crystal. T h e form comes first. Then it functions as
a vessel, or an object, or it holds light, or transform s a space. Being
crafted is a given . It’s lik e , 3'eah, it’s hand-done and that’s ve ry
im portant, but it has to be hand-done. T h e re ’s a reason w h y our
stu ff is so artisanal and takes so much tim e, and it’s because no
other process can g ive 3'ou that result. T h a t’s it. T h a t’s it, and
there’s no com prom ise.” +
Gim m e M ore!
alisonbergerglassw orks.com
blackm ancruz.com
holl3'hunt.com
