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Ottchil Art
Ottchil
CHUNG HAE CHO
See you ie ihe Philudelpliiii Museum ol An d u ll Shew!
www.ottchilart.com
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THE GLASS BEAD MEETS A NEW GILDED AGE
From conferences, membership opportunities and exhibits,
the ISGB's mission is to promote the skilled craftsmanship
of glass beadmakers around the world.
Join us in celebrating this innovative and expressive art
form. For more information about membership, please
visit www.isgb.org.
Woik shown I t out ISGR Gathering
2
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Conference presenter, Barbara Rcckcr Simon
ISGB
International Society of Class Beadmakers
O
Preview
Bonds o f Glass
Heller Gallery
Susan Taylor Glasgow:
Love Hurts
New York, New York
September 12 - October io,
2009
Susan Taylor Glasgow is
known for her depictions of
domestic bliss as little more
than well-crafted illusion, so
her transition from the com-
forts of needle and thread to
the brittle brilliance of fire
and glass is a statement in it-
self. Raised to cook and sew,
the sculptor does both, but
in a medium that is neither
edible nor wearable.
Stitching together glass
panels with ribbon and thread,
she has fashioned toasters,
bras and other feminine icons,
such as
Chandelier DressO.
But in this show, Glasgow
unhinges the concept to focus
on insights she gained from
working with homeless and
abused women as an artist-
in-residence at the Pittsburgh
Glass Center. With their par-
ticipation, she created
The
Communal Nest,
a room-size
take on avian domesticity.
The willow branches nestled
amid glass twigs suggest the
last remnants of a telling sub-
stitution—the breakable for
the pliable, the rigid for the
flexible—conveying that home
sweet durable home is a fragile
place indeed. The glass-for-
wood transposition offers
clarity over opacity: you could
see through this nest, past the
facade of picket fences and
manicured lives.
“Glasgow’s recent work
has definitely adopted a more
serious tone,” says gallery
owner Douglas Heller. “See-
ing women trapped in violent,
destructive relationships has
led her to profoundly alter her
visual language.” In
It’s Easy
to Love the Rose,
a work in
Glasgow’s new series, a hand-
linked glass chain connects
a teapot that looks more like
a weathered wineskin to a
perfect little teacup. The piece
illustrates Glasgow’s interpre-
tation of a profound insight all
parents probably wish their
children understood: we are
inextricably linked to the
choices we make.
“Whomever people invite
into their life dramatically
shapes their future,” Glasgow
says. “I’ve selected objects
that have a natural domestic
association and made one of
the pair as beautiful as I could
make it and the other as ugly,
and then permanently bound
them with glass chain. The
enabler and the dependent.
Abuser and victim. Purity of
thought chained to constant
self-doubt.” For an artist who
usually ponders the lighter
ironies of home life, imagining
the anguish of a battered wife,
must have been difficult. But
though Glasgow works in a
fantastical medium she is a
realist at heart.—
m i k e m a r t i n
Mike Martin is a writer based
in Columbia, Missouri.
www.freedowns.net & www.journal-plaiza.net
Photo/Art Smith Photography.
