Exposition « Glasstress: white light / white heat » in London with Lucy+Jorge Orta

In a unique collaboration between Berengo Studio, Venice Projects, London College of Fashion, and The Wallace Collection, Glasstress: White Light | White Heat presents newly commissioned work from some of today’s most important contemporary artists, many working in glass for the first time.

Lucy + Jorge Orta’s Amazonia Tree of Life, commissioned for the Venice venue of this traveling exhibition, are blossoms of handcrafted glass flowers, grafted onto branches from a Mediterranean olive tree, extending outward from the trunk. Amazonia Tree of Life follows the trajectory of Lucy + Jorge Orta’s ongoing Perpetual Amazonia project. During their 2009 expedition to the Peruvian Amazon the artists photographed hundreds of rainforest plant species, creating a personalized collection of florilegium they continue to add to during their travels across the world. These florae have since been transformed into large format photographs, drawings, handcrafted couture works, and porcelain objects. The latest interpretations in glass have been blown by the master craftsman Danilo Zanella at Berengo Studio.

As its title intimates, Glasstress: White Light | White Heat deals with light and heat, intrinsic aspects of glass and its working. Glass is born from the creative and destructive force of fire, which transforms the basic chemical elements into a viscous fluid. The result is a malleable matter with a chaotic, molecular structure providing light with a limitless variety of surfaces, colors, transparencies, and reflections. The London exhibition is showing across the Fashion Space Gallery and The Wallace Collection.

More information

http://www.arts.ac.uk/fashion/research/glasstress/