Beyond the Glass Skin

BEYOND THE GLASS SKIN
The Work of Dana Zámečniková
Fabrizia Bazzo
Fiar 360
February 2007
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
Page 2
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page 3
PREFACE
Page 5
INTRODUCTION
Page 8
CHAPTER ONE
THE WORKS
Page 13
CHAPTER TWO
LIGHT AND SPACE
Page 37
COHESION OF DIFFERENT STYLES AND TIMES
Page 39
GOOD VERSUS EVIL
Page 39
CHAPTER THREE
CONTEXT AND ENVIRONMENT
Page 44
CHAPTER FOUR
DANA ZÁMEČNÍKOVÁ – HELEN MAURER
Page 49
CONCLUSION
Page 53
REFERENCES
Page 57
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Page 59
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Page 62
Page 2
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1 - ‘Teatrum Mundi I’ 1989/90
Painted glass, metal, wood
175 x 250 x 250 cm
Page 7
Figure 2 - ‘Family Portrait’ c. 1987
Layers of sheet glass, transparent paint and etched
motifs, in a metal frame
68.5 x 57 x 9 cm
Page 11
Figure 3 - ‘Going for a Walk’ 1981
Layers of sheet glass sandblasted, enamelled and
engraved
27 x 38 x 5 cm
Page 14
Figure 4 - ‘Shout’ 1990
Two flat glass panes, etched and painted, red plastic
fibres. Solid clear block with metal support.
162 x 82 x 58 cm
Page 17
Figure 5 - ‘Woman – Tiger’ 1995
Painted glass, lead
180 x 110 x 120 cm
Page 19
Figure 6 - ‘Upside Down’ 1996
Painted glass, lead
78 x 51 x 3 cm
Page 20
Figure 7 & Figure 8 - ‘Without Saying a Word’ 1995
200 x 500 x 250 cm
Page 23
Figure 9 - ‘My Family’ 1997
Painted glass and wooden chair, mixed media
210 x 120 x 150 cm
Page 26
Figure 10 & Figure 11 - ‘Theatrum Mundi’ 1993 – 1994
Painted and laminated glass, metal, mixed media
1.100 x 1.100 x 310 cm
Installation at the Corning Glass Inc. Headquarters NY
Page 30
Figure 12 - ‘Devil Versus Angels’ 2000
Patinated glass, metal, acid etched, digital
printmaking
73 x 80 x 16 cm
Page 41
- ‘M/eyes’ 2000
73 x 80 x 16 cm
Page 42
Figure 14 - ‘AemAet 2 – Hameporeš’ 2002-2004
Acid etched, painted, digitally enamelled and
slumped glass, metal.
diam. 170 cm
Page 47
Figure 15 - 'Helen Maurer'
Alpha Light Frame’ 2001
Projector, glass, wood
Page 50
Page 3
PREFACE
Page 5
This paper researches the work of Dana Zámečníková (Czech, b. 1945).
The main reason for this choice was dictated not so much by the work she produces as objects but for the
achievement they represent and for the character and energy they can communicate.
In spite of the limited bibliography to which I had access to support the research and the meagre responses
from the enquiries I sent to several museums, I was determined to write about Zámečníková’s work. To me,
she is one of the few artists who has chosen glass as their principle medium and who has made use of it in
the most powerful way.
Most importantly, this research has given me the opportunity to reflect and to evaluate my own work.
Tina Oldknow (2000) introduced Zámečníková’s work citing Joseph Campbell (1990) with these words:
“Am I the consciousness or am I the vehicle of consciousness? In Japan, these two alternatives
are called the ri hokkai (the general realm) and the ge hokkai (the individual realm). The
Japanese say: ge, ri, mu gai (individual, general, no obstruction). When you identify with the
consciousness then you can let the vehicle go. You have identified yourself with that which is
everlasting. You realize that you are one with the consciousness in all beings.”
This is the achievement to which I am referring: “the goal of a consciousness, reached through a voyage
undertaken with a view to the treasure of experience, which can be accumulated and brought home; where
the individual moments of the voyage are not enjoyed simply for themselves”
(Dews, 1995:23).
Page 6
Figure 1
‘Teatrum Mundi I’ 1989/90
Painted glass, metal, wood
175 x 250 x 250 cm
INTRODUCTION
Page 8
Dana Zámečníková trained as an architect at the Technical University in Prague from
1962-68. She moved on to study theatrical design under Josef Svoboda at the Prague
Academy of Applied Arts; this training proved to be critical to the development of her
work.
Following this she then began her artistic career by experimenting with mobiles, toys,
animated designs and scene painting.
She was first introduced to glass by her partner and glass artist Marian Karel, and
since 1978 Zámečníková has devoted herself exclusively to this medium.
Her works and installations are built using several layers of glass, creating multilayered glass panels on which she inscribes her complex, fractured stories of human
relations.
Past and present, good and evil are often put in contraposition, creating a conflict
between strict rules and hasty layers of events and information.
In her more recent works, the drawing style has changed. It has become more sketchy
and graffiti-like, sometimes with a splash of colour and distressed surfaces; the work
has become “slightly dirty”, “slightly human”. In her own words, she “goes against the
glass,” muddying it and forcing the viewer to imagine more of the story that is
provided. (Frantz, 1997:122)
What lies behind this personal journey that arrives at enacting, almost, a sense of
deliberate chaos?
In her early works, as in the more recent installations and larger works, the real aim
was, and still is, to create an infinite space, expanding the actual space beyond its
own physical perimeters. As she stated: “...it is more important for me to find solutions
for the expression and for the use of space in an object.” (Zámečníková in Ricke,
1990:70)
Page 9
For Zámečníková, her art represents an exploration of formal problems, and they are
always personal statements in a manifestation of pure expressiveness.
Chambers (1985:21) has identified two rather different problems always present in her
work that merit attention:
a) how to tell a story without becoming too literal, without losing the mystery and
magic, which has always intrigued her and yet providing enough clues for the
viewer to understand the story and;
b) how to create, through formal means, an infinite and indefinite space in which
these narratives can exist.
A few works will be chosen to represent the evolution in her practice and these will be
studied in detail in Chapter One.
The time spent with Josef Svoboda at the Prague Academy of Applied Arts studying
stage design played a seminal role in the formation of a “creative philosophy” well
ahead of the theatrical one. This influence is evident in Zámečníková’s work on many
levels, but I would say that the most interesting ones are those that are less obviously
related to the theatrical context.
In Chapter Two I will discuss these aspects:
 Light
 Space
 Cohesion of Different Styles and Times
 Good and Evil
In Chapter Three I would like to collocate her work in the wider Czech artistic and
socio-political context.
Finally, I will compare her work with that of Helen Maurer, an English artist, also with a
theatrical background.
Page 10
Figure 2
‘Family Portrait’ c. 1987
Layers of sheet glass, transparent paint
and etched motifs, in a metal frame
68.5 x 57 x 9 cm
CHAPTER ONE
Page 12
THE WORKS
“Since immense is not an object, a phenomenology of immense would refer
us directly to our imagining consciousness. In analysing images of
immensity, we should realize within ourselves the pure being of pure
imagination. It then becomes clear that works of art are the “by-products” of
this existentialism of the imagining being. In this direction of daydreams of
immensity, the real “product” is consciousness of enlargement. We feel that
we have been promoted to the dignity of the admiring being.”
Gaston Bachelard, (1994:184)
Within the ideological and expressive range of the Czech fine arts, Dana
Zámečníková’s work assumes quite a unique place. Her work reflects a
Postmodernism flair which is distinguished by formerly inaccessible freedom, resulting
in an unexpected and uncommon combination.
Her early works were small in scale; the condensed images were detailed, technically
perfect and, literally, controlled. She used, in a technical virtuosity, techniques such as
acid etching, painting and digital enamelling to create multi-layered glass panels.
These small panes of glass captured the viewer’s eye and led their attention into the
space she had devised and into the story that she had invented.
Pictures of people and fragments of animals usually appear in order to enhance an
expression composed in ascending chains of meaning. Although the images are
fragmented, visually they combine a coherent whole. (Figure 2)
Page 13
Figure 3
‘Going for a Walk’ 1981
Layers of sheet glass sandblasted,
enamelled and engraved
27 x 38 x 5 cm
The artist is very much involved and at the same time analytic. Like in a dream, she
experiences and at the same time watches (through her “eyes”) the pictorial
happenings.
By separating the layers of glass, she is able to accumulate the time gaps with the
shifts in space. The concept of the Baroque stage, layering the stage settings, has
been translated into glass.
In the more recent works, which are larger in scale, the narrative quality of the pictorial
stories, motifs in the sequences of drawings on glass sheets, develop; the gestural
marks and spatters of abstract painting, tense and nervous, become part of the
composition and stimulate the viewer to make their own connections to the work
(Figure 4).
According to Eco it is this underlying intention which distinguishes a work of art; the
marks are the signifier of the gesture.
“Gesture and sign coexist in a particular balance, impossible to reproduce,
resulting from the fusion of inert materials and formative energy.”
(Eco, 1989:103)
She challenges the notion of fixed boundaries and our perceptions about the use of
glass. Even using such a seductive material, which normally acts more as a
destination, she can detach herself and the viewer from the aura of the medium to the
complex stories inscribed on it.
She works in a rather unconventional way, which allows her a degree of freedom and
flexibility. She always uses what suits her needs even though it might offend the “truth
to materials”; thus she uses also oil paint and various other media, instead of
restricting herself to the more traditional glass techniques.
Page 15
“My treatment of glass”, she says, “is rather non-traditional, and so now I
like to use transparent digital photographs baked and processed in the kiln,
with the help of which I try to create something which I call mechanical
holography; I keep searching for new possibilities and I enjoy glass as the
material of the past as well as the undreamt-of (technical) future.”
(Zámečníková in Janousek, 2001)
Zámečníková also applies other well known formal compositional methods such as
inversion: black is white, inside is outside; her body is transparent, but the shadow is
opaque1, the upside-down position of the figure (Figure 5 & Figure 6), or the
deconstruction of its representation.
She uses familiar emotional situations charging them with several levels of meaning.
“My inspiration is almost always the same,” she observes. “It is what I know
well: friends, events connected to me, relationships. Relationships and
tensions between man and woman, my personal ones and the general
ones, in the present, and in the light of historical reflection.”
(Zámečníková, 1999:59)
1
It is interesting to note that often she employs lead to represent the shadow, which is a material that 'absorbs' light.
Page 16
Figure 4
‘Shout’ 1990
Two flat glass panes, etched and painted,
red plastic fibres. Solid clear block with metal support.
162 x 82 x 58 cm
Her working method could be compared with Svoboda’s in scenography. As he
recalled in his memoirs:
“...we always consciously used familiar, if not common, elements, and
precisely by means of their individualized orchestration we achieved a new
artistic reality, thus building on some of our earlier theatre work. We
became aware that the emotional associations of the “familiar” can become
a production component whose meaning transcends normal logic and
deepens psychological perception. ...After all, our affective memory, which
draws from realities of daily life as well as from various non objective or
imagined realities, is capable of expanding their meaning to form patterns
of affective association, which in a special way deepen and enrich those
realities with added significance.”
(Svoboda in Burian, 1993:115)
The fragmented images that compose her work are often representations of states of
womanhood, both idealised and historically rooted, offering a complex picture of
female identity.
In this respect the comparison with paper dolls made by Susanne K. Frantz in the
catalogue for the exhibition “Glass Skin”, poetic and nostalgic, is not casual; the
reference is not only visual, but again speaks about “female” and “memories”:
“They are flat, like the paper dolls that amused girls for generations.
Clothing for those one-dimensional cardboard figures was laboriously cut
and added piece by piece, layer by layer. ......Those bundled layers, the
multiple strata of images, record a history of moments that are available to
anyone who cares to read them. However, with increasing depth comes
diminished clarity.”
(Frantz, 1997:122)
Page 18
Figure 5
‘Woman – Tiger’ 1995
Painted glass, lead
180 x 110 x 120 cm
Figure 6
‘Upside Down’ 1996
Painted glass, lead
78 x 51 x 3 cm
These spatial compositions look fine when viewed from the front, but when the
viewer’s vantage point shifts slightly to the side, the illusion may falter opening to
another level of discovery. Once the images are enlarged, they become
confrontational:
“...the artist becomes the aggressor and her sculpture becomes a body
blocking our path – a body that, in its brittleness, is a potential weapon.”
(Frantz, 1997:122)
I also see the eyes, which often appear in her work, as a way of confronting the
viewer’s gaze.
Zámečníková’s work is the result of a long search for identity, a constant dialogue
between stage and auditorium that generates a new awareness and, through it, new
scripts for her representations. Her use of concise and simple words to describe her
work confirms this assumption:
“There is a piece of me in all of it, because it is my experience and my
memories. Perhaps, only the stolen souls that catch on my line are the
most important to me, and above any explaining.”
(Zámečníková , 1999:60)
The “mask” is a current element in her work; it may articulate real spatial meaning at
several levels if seen as characterisation of the distinction between inside and outside.
Summers (2003:301) suggests that the “invisibility” of the enclosed and concealed
inside may represent the invisibility of spirit.
Theatre could appear to be an easy association here but, although the history of
Page 21
masks in the West is quite complex, it is interesting to note that the word “person” for
an individual human being, descends from the Latin word “persona”, used for a
theatrical mask. (Summers, 2003:304)
It could be also a way to free her modes of expression. As observed by Kristian Suda:
“The mask enables constant change, enjoys the privilege of breaking
established rules, of laughing at unexpected conflicts, and furthermore
enables the viewer to observe human turmoil from a distance”.
(Suda, 1984:191)
Most of the masks depicted seem to me to be self portraits. If this is the case, the
mask conveys multiple functions; it could conceal the inner person but, at the same
time, reinforce the appearance through the portrait and the unique mask of one’s self.
She wants to be constantly in control while at the same time maintaining a certain
detachment.
The most recent works, such as AemAet 2 - Hamepores (Figure 14) reflect a growing
confidence and ambition in handling her chosen medium. Here the influence from
Marian Karel’s work is more visible whose goal is “… not to create an object in space.
Rather, by organising glass in a space,” his aim is “ to present a space in a space, a
new nature in nature”. (Karel, 1999:31).
The work has become minimal and less narrative. It expands and reinforces the
dialogue with the space and its environment. Although the intriguing balance looks
extremely interesting, I regret the loss of the poetic narrative present in earlier work
Page 22
Figure 7 & Figure 8
‘Without Saying a Word’ 1995
200 x 500 x 250 cm
MY FAMILY (1997)
There are frequent allusions to domestic life in Zámečníková’s work, either in the
painted imagery or through the introduction of found objects. In “My Family” (Figure 9)
a chair anchors the memories of family, establishing a sense of place where the artist
belongs. The chair has powerful associations as G. Celant clearly underlines:
“It is the sign of a degree of contact and of sharing the same area of lived
experience, normally developed in an internal space, room or house.
Furniture is the realm of the intermediacy and intimacy between one person
and another, and thus all the rites and ceremony associated with furniture
are subjected to a control of their meaning, which cannot be univocal and
irrevocable. Any rite or ceremony implies a rigorous determination of
space, movement and time, which are reflected in the pragmatic
interpretation of the instrument of encounter.”
(Celant, 1996:15)
This work epitomises the constant references and relationships between man and
woman that recur in her works (see the serpent on the right of the panel, for example).
Looking at this composition, the size and dominant position of the figure of
Zámečníková herself may reflect how she perceives her role within her own family.
Page 25
Figure 9
‘My Family’ 1997
Painted glass and wooden chair, mixed media
210 x 120 x 150 cm
THEATRUM MUNDI (1993 – 1994)
“Theatrum Mundi” (Figure 10 & Figure 11) is an installation commissioned in 1993 by
Corning Glass Inc. for their new headquarters in New York. Each selected artist was
given a separate atrium complete with skylight to display their work.
As suggested by the title, Zámečníková’s work consisted of many glass figures,
disjointed in scale and perspective, filling the space.
In the middle a mirror screen divides the room diagonally. The mirror is an important
element in the composition, not only in a spatial sense, but it also gives meaning to all
of the installation. The viewer is able to walk onto the “stage”, becoming both
spectator and actor and, at the same time, entering the narrative.
The mirror together with the surface of the glass, make it possible for the viewer to see
oneself as someone else; he is both the subject and the object at the same time and
through this confrontation enacts the process of subject formation because:
“… subjectivity presupposes reflection, a representation of experience as
that of an experiencing self, through such representation, which depends
upon the synthesizing function of concepts, the original fluidity of intuition,
the communication between the human and the secular worlds, is lost.
Consciousness” then “becomes a kind of self-contained theatre, divided
between stage and auditorium” where “energy is transformed into the
thought of energy, intensity into intentionality.”
(Dews, 1995:18)
The shiny surface reflects reality but, accordingly to Kaja Silverman:
“reality never seems directly perceived but always only indirectly conveyed
– as an image/projection needing interpretation”.
(Silverman in Steiner 2003:10)
Page 27
Zámečníková has often been inspired by J. L. Borges writings. In “Theatrum Mundi”
there is a particularly strong connection with the tale “Book of Imaginary Beings”2; the
fish and all the human and imagined mirror creatures are a part of the composition.
Regarding the Borges’ tale, Lyotard writes:
“Borges imagines these beings as forces, and this bar (the bar between
representation and the represented) as a barrier; he imagines that the
Emperor, the Despot in general, can only maintain his position on condition
that he represses the monsters and keeps them on the other side of the
transparent wall. The existence of the subject depends on this wall, on the
enslavement of the fluid and lethal powers repressed on the other side, on
the function of representing them.”
(Lyotard in Dews, 1995:22)
The mirror is one of Borges’ favourite metaphors, intended to call into question visual
2
“In one of the volumes of the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses that appeared in Paris during the first half of the eighteenth
century, Father Fontecchio of the Society of Jesus planned a study of the superstitions and misinformation of the
common people of Canton; in the preliminary outline he noted that the Fish was a shifting and shining creature that
nobody had ever caught but that many said they had glimpsed in the depths of mirrors. Father Fontecchio died in 1736,
and the work begun by his pen remained unfinished; some 150 years later Herbert Allen Giles took up the interrupted
task. According to Giles, belief in the Fish is part of a larger myth that goes back to the legendary times of the Yellow
Emperor. In those days the world of mirrors and the world of men were not, as they are now, cut off from each other.
They were, besides, quite different; neither beings, nor colours nor shapes were the same. Both kingdoms, the specular
and the human, lived in harmony; you could come and go through mirrors. One night the mirror people invaded the earth.
Their power was great, but at the end of bloody warfare the magic arts of the Yellow Emperor prevailed. He repulsed the
invaders, imprisoned them in their mirrors, and forced on them the task of repeating, as though in a kind of dream, all the
actions of men. He stripped them of their power and of their forms and reduced them to mere slavish reflections. None
the less, a day will come when the magic spell will be shaken off. The first to awaken will be the Fish. Deep in the mirror
we will perceive a very faint line and the colour of this line will be like no other colour. Later on, other shapes will begin to
stir. Little by little they will differ from us; little by little they will not imitate us. They will break through the barriers of glass
or metal, and this time will not be defeated. Side by side with these mirror creatures, the creatures of water will join battle.
In Yunnan, they do not speak of the Fish but of the Tiger of the Mirror. Others believe that in advance of the invasion we
will hear from the depths of mirrors the clatter of weapons.”
1995:21)
Page 28
(J. L. Borges from Book of Imaginary Beings in Dews,
perception and the illusory nature of knowledge itself.3 Zámečníková has used the
mirror in exactly the same way and for the same purpose.
The mirror also represents the tool to achieve a relation and a confrontation with the
self and she is well aware that: ”we cannot enter into a relation with this creature
either by smashing the mirror or by claiming that both the true world and the reflected
world are merely effects generated by its invisible surface”. (Dews, 1995:35)
Just as Parkinson Zamora did when referring to this tale of Borges, I would describe
Zámečníková’s work, as “triumphant realism represented allegorically”. (Parkinson
Zamora, 2002:35 [online]).
3
In 2005 the Museum Kampa in Prague held an exhibition on Dana Zámečníková. The main theme was 'reflection in a
mirror' inspired by a J.L. Borges’ short story (i.e. Book of Imaginary Beings - the same story from which I believe she
drew inspiration for the earlier installation at the Corning Glass Inc.) merging reality with fiction.
Page 29
Figure 10 & Figure 11
‘Theatrum Mundi’ 1993 – 1994
Painted and laminated glass, metal, mixed media
1.100 x 1.100 x 310 cm
Installation at the Corning Glass Inc. Headquarters NY
On many occasions during this research I encountered the word “magic”. In an
attempt to establish a real relevance with her work, I have again looked closer at the
affinity with Borges’ literature.
I think that the influences of Magical Realism may be traced through her work. It is
most readily recognised in the work of the major Latin American fiction writers, one of
who is Borges, and often as a central element of post-colonial literature.
As an international style, Magical Realism has characterised the work of novelists’
writings about nations in transition to modernisation. Although I wouldn’t describe
Czechoslovakia as a nation in transition to modernisation, the forty years under the
Communist Government has still meant a struggle for subjective and collective
recognition, fragmented by the economic system.
According to Isabelle Allende,
“… magic realism is a literary device or a way of seeing in which there is
space for the invisible forces that move the world: dreams, legend, myths,
emotion, passion, history. All these forces find a place in the absurd,
unexplainable aspects of magic realism....It is the capacity to see and to
write about all the dimensions of reality”
(Allende, 1991:54 in Faris, 2002:107 [online])
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To me, Dana Zámečníková’s work represents the attempt to find a new mode of
understanding reality, possible only through the aid of imagination that opens the
framework within which understanding operates. It is difficult to separate the “real”
from the “marvellous” in her work because both interact in such a way that surprises
us: “the marvellous real is a form of daily miracle.” 4
Without forgetting that “real” and “marvellous” are both relative concepts, and that the
perception of “reality” actually depends on pre-existing categories,5 we have to
acknowledge that narrative, magical and metaphorical modes of thought as well as
objective facts are equally important because they both influence people’s perception
as well as shaping psychological and social reality.
I found similar observations in the essay by Hegerfeldt about Magical Realism
techniques and their functions, when she writes:
“The
distinction
abstract/concrete
furthermore
becomes
curiously
blurred....no difference is made between the two kinds of “objects” physical
existence loses its significance as a criterion of value: the conceptual world
appears on a par with material reality.”
(Hegerfeldt, 2002:70 [online])
Zámečníková’s engagement with the “everyday” charged with the magical aura with
which her work is often described is appropriate if it is seen as Magical Realism “… is
4
“...with Carpentier`s term “lo real maravilloso”, the marvellous real ....the claim is that reality itself, whether historical or
natural, is fantastic, a form of daily miracle .... Calling it marvellous expresses our surprise at its undeniable actual
existence.” (Wood, 2002:12)
“The marvellous, Carpentier says, depends on faith, and the great error of the Surrealists was to try to create the
marvellous without really believing in it.” (Wood, 2002:13)
5
“..reality is not simply a “given” over which there will exist a natural and universal consensus, but that what individuals
and groups will think of as “reality” depends to a not inconsiderable extent on social and cultural factors, causing
expectations and assumptions about the world to differ with time and place.” (Hegerfeldt, 2002:77[online])
Page 33
characterised by its visualising capacity, that is, by its capacity to create (magical)
meaning by seeing ordinary things in extraordinary ways.” (Parkinson Zamora,
2002:22 [online]).
Roh emphasised that: “… with the word magic as opposed to mystic,” is “to indicate
that the mystery does not descend to the represented world, but rather hides and
palpitates behind it.” (Roh, 1925:16 in Parkinson Zamora, 2002:21 [online]) 6
To return to the problem as proposed by Chambers in the introduction of this text, of
how to tell a story without being too literal, authors of Magical Realism, as well as
Zámečníková, also have to negotiate the potential risk of revealing too much.
6
The German art critic Franz Roh, in his 1925 essay, described a group of Post Expressionists painters using the term
“Magischer Realismus”.
Page 34
CHAPTER TWO
Page 35
Throughout this text, I have analysed different aspects of Zámečníková’s works
subtitling them with several quotations by Joseph Svoboda. In this way I wanted to
underline the influence from her past training in stage design and to find common
threads between the two disciplines.
The idea of art as dramatisation, suggested by Shusterman (2002:233-4), puts a
bridge between theatre and art; “to dramatise” means “to put something on the stage”.
It could be a theatrical performance or framing of scenes thus to create ‘a context or
stage that sets the work apart from the ordinary stream of life and thus marks it as art.’
The connection of action and place is that dramatisation captures both elements:
active intensity and structural frame.
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LIGHT AND SPACE
“Dana, try to capture the light, attempt to understand it, and give it order!”
(Svoboda in Zámečníková , 2000)
In Greek the word phaos/phos means light. It comes from the root pha, it is also the
root of the verb phaino which means precisely “to show” or “to make manifest”. The
first experience that men have of light is therefore that of “revelation”. (Natoli, 2003:18)
The perception of light as something tangible, experienced through the senses, has
given rise to metaphors that constitute the basic vocabulary of symbolism and for the
elaboration of a mythology about light that brings together the many different ways
that we experience it. In this perspective it is easily understandable why the light that
allows us to see has become the defining metaphor for truth.
Light as a pure and simple physical experience lets us see, illuminates and affects the
mood.
The word “phantasia”, or representation, comes from light and thus from “phos”.
Fantasy is the symbolic space, but it is also the place for concepts and, in that, the
truth. (Natoli, 2003:22) Light is the starting point of space: light defines spaces, ideal
spaces, fantastic spaces and scenic spaces.
Josef Svoboda has written:
“I perceived light physically, not only visually. For me, light became a
substance”
(Svoboda in Burian, 1993:6)
In a similar way works by Olafur Eliasson and by James Turrell manifest the same
Page 37
concept of its physical presence, its “thingness”.
Zámečníková chose glass as her medium to work with and in choosing glass she has
also automatically chosen to work with light. Glass has a spatial influence with light in
that it filters, refracts, reflects and transmits light, creating a continual dialogue with it.
In her works light, space and time are concepts strictly connected and represented not
only visually but also symbolically and conceptually.
Lefebvre in his book La Production de l`espace (1986), rejects the concept of space
as “a container without content”, instead he defines space as “a product of human
practice”.
Representational space, which is only one of “the three moments of social space”, the
“lived” one, is space as appropriated by the imagination; he writes that it “overlays
physical space, making symbolic use of its objects”. (Lefebvre in Burgin, 1996:27)
Arnaud Levy (1977) asserts in his essay:
“Subjective space surrounds us like an envelope, like a second skin. The
notions of in front and behind, of right and left are attached to it” and he
observes that “Subjective space functions as metaphor of time in the same
way that we situate the future “ahead” of ourselves and place the past
“behind” ourselves, we assume the present to be exactly where we
currently are.”
(Levy in Burgin, 1996:213)
Page 38
COHESION OF DIFFERENT STYLES AND TIMES
As we have seen, time has spatial connotations. The matrix of space is the body, and
it is also at the origin of our basic notions of temporality.
If we think that what we call “the present” is not “a perpetually fleeting point on a line
through time, but a collage of disparate times, as imbrications of shifting and
contested spaces” (Burgin, 1996:182), aspects of different periods in history present in
Zámečníková’s work, make a sensible cohesion that speaks about “the present”.
In this respect Homi K. Bhabha observes:
“The challenge to modernity comes in redefining the signifying relation to a
disjunctive “present”: Staging the “past” as symbol, myth, memory, history,
the ancestral – but a “past” whose iterative value as a sign re-inscribes the
“lessons of the past” into the very textuality of the present that determines
both the identification with, and the interrogation of, modernity.”
(Bhabha in Burgin, 1996:265)
The references to the past or to history could also be seen to serve not only as
reminders, but also to provide a certain reassurance. In making the past ontologically
present, these references serve to emphasise how the past continues to exert
influence over people’s perception and behaviour in the now. Zámečníková’s
compositions portray the past with the same weight as the present.
In art, like in theatre, it is possible to merge realities that at first glance seem
incompatible, the past with the present, historical styles with elements of modern
civilization.
In his memoirs Svoboda writes:
“....one of the roads to salvation may be a humble search for the point in
which the spirit of the past meets the as yet unknown spirit of the present.”
(Svoboda in Burian, 1993:Epilogue)
GOOD VERSUS EVIL
Page 39
Signs of duality are often present in Zámečníková’s compositions (Figure 12 & ).
Sometimes the division is clear, in others they are fused together almost suggesting a
metamorphosis. Good and evil, like order and chaos or light and darkness, are two
sides of the same coin. The never ending battle between the two grants also their
balance. As in every fable the world of good and the world of evil are thrust into direct
contrast.
“.... but what form and what colour do good and evil have and how are they related?”
Svoboda confronted the same dilemma designing the stage for a production Die Frau
ohne Shatten
7
by R. Strauss (Svoboda in Burian, 1993:28). A way must be found to
join such elements at a deeper level.
Kristeva has always allocated the position of the woman in society, inside the
patriarchal scheme, at the boundary in a peripheral and ambivalent position. This has
led to a division in the field of representations where women are viewed as either
“saintly” or “demonic”. (Kristeva in Burgin, 1996b:52)
This is a possible point of view towards the interpretation of some of Zámečníková’s
works since the female representation is rendered, either in the form of her own eyes
or as a self portrait, constantly mixed with evil signs.
7
Die Frau ohne Shatten is a fable of a woman who sold her soul and with it her humanity.
Page 40
Figure 12
‘Devil Versus Angels’ 2000
Patinated glass, metal, acid etched, digital printmaking
73 x 80 x 16 cm
Figure 13
‘M/eyes’ 2000
73 x 80 x 16 cm
CHAPTER THREE
Page 43
CONTEXT AND ENVIRONMENT
“Works of art are not objects, works of art are relationships between people
and objects. If the relationship does not exist, neither does the work of art.
Context and environment
are important. They should remain in
consideration when any work is presented. Art is primarily an idea. Remove
the idea, and only social class and economics remain.”
(Greenhalgh, 2002:13)
Although glass arrived in Bohemia and Moravia with the Celts, the real growth of glass
making came during the reign of Rudolf II, thanks also to a favourable source of raw
materials.
The establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 prepared the ground for
the glass-making school where, at the time, it grew as fine art form separated from the
all-encompassing field of arts and crafts. This trend continued into the post war period
when Bohemia, a region long subject to ethnic conflict between Czechs and Germans,
came under Soviet influence when it was annexed into Czechoslovakia.
Following the Communist takeover in 1948 a new chapter of glass-making promoting
solely Socialism Realism artistic expression was born. The freedom within the creative
process, due to the limitations of such a totalitarian aesthetic, was difficult to maintain
also for economical reasons8. With the prospect of possible commissions of works for
public space supported by the Government some Czech artists turned from the fine
arts to glass. 9
8
“They do not avoid blowing glass by choice. Czech artists, unlike their American counterparts, cannot afford the high
costs of fuelling their own furnaces so glass must be prepared under the artists’ supervision at the Novy Bor state factory
and then taken to the studios to be cut, polished or reworked.
Although glass art is apolitical, it is encouraged by the state. Government support began with the post-war generation.
Commissions were awarded for numerous large-scale sculptures that have been installed in public buildings and
museums.” article by FREUDENHEIM, Betty – Craft International – July – August 1987 p. 28
9
Considered as an “applied” rather than a “fine” art, glass permitted artists to fly under the radar of the cultural
commissars. With glass, they could explore abstraction and other practices banned under the dogma of social realism in
painting and sculpture. From an Article: Corning, New York: “Czech Glass 1945-1980: Design in an Age of Adversity” by
CARDUCCI, Vince - from Sculpture (Washington D.C.) 24 no 10 71-2 D 2005
Page 44
Under the chair of Professor Josef Kaplicky glass art became an important, almost
indispensable, facet of Czech culture at international exhibitions such as the 11th and
12th Triennials in Milan and EXPO 58 in Brussels 10. In the 1960s glass art extricated
itself from its former applied and decorative functions to rank once again amongst the
accepted forms of fine art.
It has been represented by Professor Stanislav Libensky and graduates from his
department at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague since the mid
1960s and an understanding of glass as a sculptural form has become more evident.
Together, they have been developing a pluralistic presence introduced by
Postmodernism ever since.
The freedom of expression experienced during the relatively open period of the late
1950s and 1960s ended with the Soviet-led invasion of Prague in 1968. Following that
and until the Velvet Revolution in 1989, and with it the first democratic elections in
over forty years, the communist government had grown increasingly restrictive and
conservative but, although isolated by the political situation, Czech glass artists still
managed to develop an autonomous and innovative approach to the medium.
These social political events represent the background in which Dana Zámečníková
was brought up; frustrations as well as creative energies have prepared the ground for
her art. After all, the self is always in a constant dialogue with the social and the
cultural roots from where they originated.
Since her background does not stem from the discipline and training of the glass
studio, influences from the Czech Glass Movement were still available to her thanks to
Marian Karel, her partner and a former pupil of Professor Libensky. In spite of this lack
of a formal training, she has developed a very personal approach towards the
sculptural properties of glass and her novel approach has brought a new dimension to
10
“The world exposition in Brussels had special significance for Czech and Slovak culture. It was our first participation in a
world exhibition after 1945, our first display of our sense of the historical evolution of our art, and our first entry into
competition without knowing the strength of our opponents.” SVOBODA, Joseph - (Svoboda participated as the interior
designer of the cultural hall, as the creator of Polyekran and as a designer of a separate section of the Czech Glass
exhibition)
Page 45
the Czech glass movement.
Page 46
Figure 14
‘AemAet 2 – Hameporeš’ 2002-2004
Acid etched, painted, digitally enamelled glass and slumping
glass, metal
diam. 170 cm
CHAPTER FOUR
Page 48
DANA ZÁMEČNÍKOVÁ – HELEN MAURER
Comparing Helen Maurer and Dana Zámečníková seemed to me appropriate since
they have some common starting points in their creative practices, although their work
has ended up in very different directions.
Both have a theatrical background and they share a concern of meaning, content,
context and theory rather than the exploration of an aesthetic experience. In
attempting to establish new positions and new approaches to the use of glass, their
work appears alien to the glass movements in their respective homelands.
Helen Maurer is an English artist. She stages performances of light and shadow
through the medium of glass to discover visual qualities. Much of her work contains
illusory devices using light and mirrors and through the use of lenses she plays with
refraction, reflection and magnification. In her case we can speak literally about dematerialisation of the object. In recent years she has been working with overhead
projectors; miniature three dimensional models from glass are assembled in a way to
create a two dimensional projected scenery (Figure 15), as opposed to Dana
Zámečníková who assembles two dimensional sheets of glass to become three
dimensional compositions.
Helen Maurer’s subjects are often drawn from memory and they reflect how we all
tend to condense our experiences into idealised memories. She explains:
“The process of making becomes like a search for a familiar feeling
associated with a place or event, a search for a certain quality as opposed
to an accurate visual representation.”
(Maurer’s statement [online])
Page 49
Figure 15
Helen Maurer
‘Alpha Light Frame’ 2001
Projector, glass, wood
The process of putting the objects together has a narrative quality. In a recent sitespecific installation, at The Pump House Gallery in London, last December she has
explored the theme of created landscapes. She has filmed the effects created during
the construction of the works and projected these as digital animations. This new
development in her work gives a less static approach when compared to her earlier
installations, although the search for the “familiar” still exists.
Through their work, both artists encourage the audience to address light as a material
- a substance to be enjoyed.
The two artists adopt different approaches in employing glass to manipulate light and
space. Helen Maurer creates, through the use of light and miniature objects made of
glass, virtual sceneries; Dana Zámečníková makes glass constructions that resemble
stage props. They both, literally, create mise-en-scènes but, far from being superficial
in their approach, they frame something much more important and far deeper than the
reconstruction of a fictional theatre.
Indeed, for Helen Maurer these miniature objects used in her projections, like others
such as photos or ornaments etc., represent something larger. They evoke a place
and they act as a trigger for a memory. Her works are installations and, by definition,
this means the processes of arrangement and placement. They are always threedimensional and they blur the borders between the work and the field of observation
surrounding it.
Like Dana Zámečníková’s Theatrum Mundi an installation of this kind evokes a spatial
experience, where the viewer is in an enclosed space - inside a work of art. A much
larger expanse than an individual object can normally create with no physical walls or
boundaries; light itself separates the viewer from the external world, much as the
picture frame operates at the edge of a painting.
For both Zámečníková and Maurer space and time are of paramount importance.
Page 51
Walking inside these installations means entering an enchanted space and becomes
an ethereal experience for the viewer. The enchantment witnessed in these cases is a
simulacrum of the artists’ consciousness.
Both these artists are working with transparent material and in both cases the images
are de-constructed, breaking them into layers. Although they work with the same
medium – glass – they use it to achieve a completely different means to an end.
Page 52
CONCLUSION
Page 53
With the title “Beyond the Glass Skin”, paraphrasing a collective exhibition (Glass
Skin) in which Dana Zámečníková participated I wanted to present not only her work,
but also her approach to it and, without any presumptions, to try to understand the
personality behind it.
Helmut Ricke introduced the catalogue of that exhibition, warning artists about the risk
of getting stuck in the superficial, and not to rely on or be seduced by the gleaming
qualities of glass.
He stated:
“Like the human skin, the skin of glass is not only a surface; it is also a
wrap. There is an inside, an outside, an underneath, and an in-front-of. The
skin is a boundary where everything comes together ... Only here do
expression and meaning achieve their full intensity. ...The wrap is nothing
without that which lies underneath. .... It does not have a form of its own,
but – and herein lies its strength – it does have the potential to convey
meanings and to produce effects.”
(Ricke, 1997:9)
In Dana Zámečníková’s work the flat glass wraps, like skin, all her individual emotional
expressions; it loses subjective properties to become just a medium to convey
meaning.
She confronts her personal experience to produce a rich image of everyday life in
which individual sources of inspiration are combined with her distinctive view of reality.
Here the glass diaphragm acts as a filter that grants the different realities cohesion
and unity of place.
Page 54
Consciousness is a word I have encountered used many times in relation to her work.
It is often defined as awareness or experience, or simply as the sensation of being
alive. It is about our perceptions, our memories, and our feelings; all components very
much present here.
Consciousness has changed, with the modernist revolution of the nineteenth century,
the view in western art from the direct representation of seen reality to the expression
of felt experience. When looking at her works the word has been used appropriately
in my opinion.
I have analysed her approach to the recurrent themes in her works of everyday life
and on the light of a female experience while also tracing common threads with the
literary movement of Magical Realism as suggested by her interest on Borges’
writings. I have tried to confront the surface tension and depth in her work in a
systematic way. Going beyond abstract analysis two aspects prevail in her works: a
joy for life and detachment from the medium.
It was not easy to find an artist to compare with Zámečníková. I saw Maurer’s work
some years ago and, at the time, I thought that she had the ability to capture in some
way the real essence of glass; “tapping into the DNA of the material” (Pearman,
2003:7). In that mise-en-scène where the only real object was the projector, I felt that
something was missing. The work conveyed a feeling of excitement but it was not
sustained or directed to fulfil some kind of imbalance of expectation and illusion that I
felt as a viewer.
In my opinion the merging of real life and fiction create a tension in Zámečníková’s
work and they are so full of life, movement, and energy - not to say thoughtfulness and
intellectualism, whereas Helen Maurer’s worlds seemed to remain distant and
inaccessible.
Of all the questions I wanted to ask her, the most important was to understand the
Page 55
personal journey that was behind the evolution of her work from the contained and
controlled multilayered works to her more recent installations. I have only partly found
the answer. To have the complete answer probably involves understanding the
existential aspects more than the artistic ones and, understandably, she doesn’t allow
her private space to be invaded.
When I started this research I was curious to know more about an artist who I esteem
and value and with the hope to find through the analysis and dissection of her practice
a better comprehension and understanding of my own. I had hoped, rather naively,
that just by writing a few pages and some basic research it would be enough to
comprehend the source of such strength and confidence that have moved the choices
and changes incurred during her artistic career. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t. What I have
learnt, is that objectivity is needed to drive subjective impulses.
The few issues raised from the limited correspondence exchanged were enough,
however, to provoke in me reflections. She remarked that, after all, “the soul behind
the works is always the same, only techniques change”‘.
Although I am aware that skills and techniques themselves must be considered merely
as tools - they are just the means rather than an end in themselves - I have not yet
been able to find in myself this same detachment and freedom that constitutes a safe
starting point.
These fragile compositions bring some words by Francis Bacon (1955) to my mind,
and they look to me “... as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail,
leaving a trail of the human presence and memory of the past events as the snail
leaves its slime”
Page 56
REFERENCES
Allende, I. (1991) ‘The Shaman and the Infedel’ (Interview). New Perspectives Quarterly 8.1 p. 54-58
Bachelard, G. (1994) ‘Intimate immensity’, The Poetics of Space. Boston: Beacon Press
Bacon, F. (1955) Quoted in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘The New Decade’
Borges, J. L. ( 1969 ), Elogio de la Sombra (In Praise of darkness)
Burgin, V. (1996), In/Different Spaces – Place and Memory in Visual Culture. Los Angeles-London:
University of California Press Berkeley
Burian, J. M. (1993) The secret of theatrical space – The memoirs of Josef Svoboda. New York:
Applause Theatre Bookspub.
Campbell, J. (1990) Transformations of Myth through Time.
Celant, G. (1996) ‘The Transparency of Architecture’, Langlands & Bell, New York: Grey Art Gallery
(Exhibition Catalogue - Serpentine Gallery – Kunsthalle Bielefeld )
Chambers, K. S. (1985) ‘Dana Zamecnikova: Artist and Magician’, Craft International, Jan-Feb-Mar
1985, 21
Dews, P. (1995) ‘The Critique of Consciousness’, The Limits of Disenchantments – Essays on
Contemporary European Philosophy. London: Verso
Eco, U. (1989) ‘The Open Work in the Visual Arts’, The Open Work. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press
Faris, W. (2002 [online]) ‘The Question of the Other’, Janus Head: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Fall
2002/5.2 Magical Realism www.janushead.org/5-2 [date accessed: 2nd December 2006]
Frantz, S. K. (1997) ‘Introduction Exhibition Catalogue’, Glass Skin. Exhibition Catalogue Corning
Museum of Glass, et al, Touring Ex. From Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan 1/1—
16/11/1997
Hegerfeldt, A. (2002 [online]) ‘Contentious Contributions’, Janus Head: An Interdisciplinary Journal,
Fall 2002/5.2 Magical Realism www.janushead.org/5-2 [date accessed: 2nd December 2006]
Karel, M. (1999) ‘Glass in Architecture’, Glass Art Society Journal.
Maurer, H. [online] Artist’s statement, www.wingsprojects.com/index.htm [date accessed: 3rd February
2007]
Page 57
Natoli, S. (2003) ‘Day, Form, Flame: Experience and Symbolism of Light’, Immaginando Prometeo
(Imagining Prometheus) – Exhibition Catalogue Milano Palazzo della Regione 9/4 – 11/5/2003. Milano:
Charta
Oldknow, T. (2000) ‘Introduction Exhibition Catalogue’, Dana Zamecnikova. New York: Heller Gallery
Parkinson Zamora, L. (2002 [online]) ‘The Visualizing Capacity of Magical Realism: Objects and
Expression in the Work of Jorge Luis Borges’, Janus Head: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Fall 2002/5.2
Magical Realism www.janushead.org/5-2 [date accessed: 2nd December 2006]
Pearman, H. (2003) Exhibition Catalogue – Jerwood Glass 2003 - Introduction
Rinder, L., Lakoff, G. (1999) ‘Consciousness art: attending to the quality of experience’, Searchlight –
Consciousness at the Millennium. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Published in connection with the exhibition “Searchlight: Consciousness at the Millennium” – California
College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco - September 1999
Ricke, H. (1990) New Glass In Europe – 50 Artists – 50 Concepts. Verlagsanstalt: Handverk GmbH
Ricke, H. (1997) ‘Inside, Outside, and In-Between: The Glass Skin as a Means of Approach’ Glass
Skin. Exhibition Catalogue Corning Museum of Glass, et al, Touring Ex. From Hokkaido Museum of
Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan 1/1—16/11/1997
Shusterman, R. (2002) ‘Art as Dramatization’ Surface and Depth. Ithaca and London:Cornell University
Press
Steiner, B. (2003) ‘Performative Architecture’ Performative Installation. Köln : Snoeck
Suda, K. (1984) ‘Spiel im Rau-Raum im Spiel/ Play of space – Space of Play’ Neues Glas (New Glass),
no. 4, 1984
Summers, D. (2003) ‘Masks 4.19’ Real Spaces. London: Phaidon Press Ltd
Janousek, I. (2001) ‘Exhibition Catalogue’ Sensitive Touch. Sept-Dec 2001, London: The Studio Glass
Gallery
Zámečníková, D. (1999) Glass Art Society Journal.
Page 58
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Czech Glass by Sylva Petrova. Praha: Gallery 2001
In/Different Spaces – Place and Memory in Visual Culture by Victor Burgin, Los Angeles – London:
University of California Press Berkeley 1996
Installation Art From Duchamp to Holzer by Mark Rosenthal, New York: Prestel 2003
New Glass in Europe – 50 Artists – 50 Concepts by Helmut Ricke, Verlagsanstalt: Handverk GmbH
1990
Performative Installation Ed. by Angelika Nollert, Koln: Snoeck 2003
Picturing Mind by John Danvers, Amsterdam, New York: Editions Rodopi B.V. 2006
Real Spaces by David Summers, London: Phaidon Press Ltd 2003
Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard – The University of Michigan Press 1994
Surface and Depth – Dialectics of Criticism by Richard Schusterman, Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press 2002
The Limits of Disenchantment – Essays on Contemporary European Philosophy by Peter Dews,
VERSO, London : 1995
The Open Work by Umberto Eco, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1989
The Persistence of Craft ed. by Greenhalgh Paul A&C Black – London, New Brunswick , New Jersey
:Rutgers University Press, 2002
The Poetic of Space by Gaston Bachelard, Boston: Beacon Press 1994
The Secret of Theatrical Space – The Memoires of Josef Svoboda Edited and translated by J. M.
Burian, New York: APPLAUSE THEATRE BOOKSPUB1993
Page 59
EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
Langlands & Bell Exhibition Catalogue ed. By Herzog H. M., Sokolowski T., Watkins J. and the Artists
Serpentine Gallery – London 30 April – 27 May 1996
Kunsthalle - Bielefeld 9 June – 14 July 1996
Grey Art Gallery & Study Center – New York University March – April 1997
Only Human Exhibition Catalogue
Exhibition organized by the Crafts Council – London 1999
Immaginando Prometeo (Imagining Prometheus)
Exhibition Catalogue Milano Palazzo della Regione 9/4 – 11/5/2003
Edizioni CHARTA, Milano 2003
Solid Air – New Work in glass
Exhibition Catalogue Crafts Council Gallery – London 11/4 – 16/6/2002
The Glass Skin
Exhibition Catalogue Corning Museum of Glass, et al, 1997
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo (Japan) 1/10 – 16/11/1997
Shimonoseki City Art Museum, Shimonoseki (Japan) 22/11/1997 - 11/1/1998
The Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu (Japan) 17/1 – 22/2/1998
The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York (USA) 16/5 – 18/10/1998
Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (Germany) 14/2 – 21/4/1999
Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Coburg (Germany) 5/9 – 14/11/1999
Sensitive Touch Exhibition Catalogue – Studio Glass Gallery – London
25/9 – 25/11/2001
M.A.V.A – Madrid – Feb–March 2002
Art & Design Gallery – Staffordshire University April-May 2002
Dana Zamecnikova Heller Gallery and Artforum www Galerie, New York: Heller Gallery, 2000
Jerwood Glass 2003 – London: Crafts Council, 2003
Page 60
ARTICLES / WEBSITES
CRAFT INTERNATIONAL – July-August 1987 article by Betty Freudenheim p. 28
CRAFT INTERNATIONAL – Jan-Feb-Mar 1985 – Dana Zamecnikova: Artist and Magician by Karen S.
Chambers p. 20-21
GLASS ART SOCIETY JOURNAL – 1999 – Katia, Two Dogs, Pat Horse, Mana Mouse, and Marian p.
59
NEUES GLAS – no. 4 1984 – Play of Space – Space of Play, pp. 187-191
L`OEIL – no. 393 – Apr 1988 – p. 79
SCULPTURE – May/June 1994 – p. 44
SCULPTURE (Washington, D.C.) 24 no. 10 D 2005 Corning, New York: “Czech Glass 1945-1980:
Design in an Age of Adversity” - “Czech Glass Now: Contemporary Sculpture, 1970-2004” Article by
Vince Carducci p. 71-2
ART & ANTIQUES 28 no. 6 Je 2005 Breaking the Mould Article by Brook S. Mason p. 46-7
AMERICAN CRAFT – V. 54 – Aug/Sept 1994 – p. 38-39
www.janushead.org
Fall 2002/5.2 Magical Realism [date accessed: 1st December 2006]
www.wingsprojects.com/index.htm
[date accessed: 3rd February 2007]
Page 61
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although I did not receive many responses to my requests for information from
museums and other bodies, the few that I did receive were all very positive and
supportive of my research.
They provided me with useful background information, further points of contact,
bibliographies and their own personal opinions that gave me the encouragement I
needed to draft the first outline of this work.
Dana Zámečníková
The Artist
Tina Oldknow
Curator of Modern Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass,
NY
Gail Bardhan
Reference & Research Librarian, The Corning Museum of
Glass, NY
Michael D. Ryan
Research Assistant – Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo,
Ohio
Klara Adamcova
Museum Kampa – Prague CZ
Zafar Iqbal
The Studio Glass Gallery – London
Mark Angus
Artist – Bild-Werk Frauenau – D
Susanne Frantz
Glass Art Society Journal editor
Yoriko Mizuta
Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art - Japan
Page 62
Note: The lines on page 4 are a translation of an extract from the poem Elogio de la sombra by Jorge Luis Borges.
The complete poem, in its original language, is reproduced below and the relevant lines highlighted.
Elogio de la sombra by Jorge Luis Borges
La vejez (tal es el nombre que los otros le dan)
puede ser el tiempo de nuestra dicha.
El animal ha muerto o casi ha muerto.
Quedan el hombre y su alma.
Vivo entre formas luminosas y vagas
que no son a ?n la tiniebla.
Buenos Aires,
que antes se desgarraba en arrabales
hacia la llanura incesante,
ha vuelto a ser la Recoleta, el Retiro,
las borrosas calles del Once
y las precarias casas viejas
que a ?n llamamos el Sur.
Siempre en mi vida fueron demasiadas las cosas;
Dem ?crito de Abdera se arranc ?los ojos para pensar;
el tiempo ha sido mi Dem ?crito.
Esta penumbra es lenta y no duele;
fluye por un manso declive
y se parece a la eternidad.
Mis amigos no tienen cara,
las mujeres son lo que fueron hace ya tantos a ?os,
las esquinas pueden ser otras,
no hay letras en las p ?ginas de los libros.
Todo esto deber ?a atemorizarme,
pero es una dulzura, un regreso.
De las generaciones de los textos que hay en la tierra
s ?lo habr ?le ?do unos pocos,
los que sigo leyendo en la memoria,
leyendo y transformando.
Del Sur, del Este, del Oeste, del Norte,
convergen los caminos que me han tra ?do
a mi secreto centro.
Esos caminos fueron ecos y pasos,
mujeres, hombres, agon ?as, resurrecciones,
d ?as y noches,
entresue ?os y sue ?os,
cada ?nfimo instante del ayer
y de los ayeres del mundo,
la firme espada del dan ?s y la luna del persa,
los actos de los muertos,
el compartido amor, las palabras,
Emerson y la nieve y tantas cosas.
Ahora puedo olvidarlas. Llego a mi centro,
a mi ?lgebra y mi clave,
a mi espejo.
Pronto sabr ?qui ?n soy.
Page 63