The Glass Delusion
National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK.
http://www.nationalglasscentre.com
21 May - 3 October 2010
Artists include:
Meris Angioletti, Celia Baker, Alan Bennett, Malcolm W. Browne, Annie Cattrell, Attila Csorgo Katharine Dowson, Peter. J. Evans, Thomas Florschuetz, Helga Griffiths, Carla Guagliardi, Susan Hiller, Christoph Keller, Jorge Macchi, Cristiano Mangione, Anne Vibeke Mou, Matt Mullican, Joao Penalva, Roger Penrose, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Richard Rigg, Fred Sandback, Beryl Sokoloff/Clarence Schmidt, Jana Sterbak, Vedovamazzei, Alfie West.
Artefacts and objects from:
Beamish Museum, Co. Durham, Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums, The Science Museum, London and Great North Museum Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne.
The Glass Delusion was the name given in the late Middle Ages and Baroque times to a form of depression. The syndrome evokes a psychological separation between reality and imagination. Sufferers were obsessive, compulsive, driven by irrational fears and envisioned themselves to be made of glass, hence delicate and vulnerable to scrutiny. More than any other material glass lends itself to speculations: as a transparent membrane it separates and connects, magnifies yet shrinks, reflects and deforms; it is a barrier, yet allows light to pass through it, it can be delicate as well as deadly and its attributes are appropriated in many symbolic ways: the Glass Brain and the Glass Man; mirror image, alter ego, Doppelganger, and split personality all come to mind. It is this duality, the ability to combine opposites, that is the inspiration for this exhibition of contemporary art, artifacts and scientific objects that tell the story of human attempts to reconcile the physical and mental worlds.
Curated by Grainne Sweeney, National Glass Centre and guest curator, Alessandra Pace.
Images:
(above)
Peter J. Evans
The universe and you IV, 2004
Graphite on Paper
64 x 88 x 5 cm
(PJE0006)
courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK
(below)
Richard Rigg
Weighing Scales, 2005
2 x Weighing Scales
42 x 35 x 68 cm
(RR0004)
courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK
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