Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Thursday Night #6: 10/10/13 Pilchuck Artist in Residence Erin Dickson


            Erin Dickson's work resonated with me the most out of the Pilchuck artists in residence. Working with glass seems so different from anything I've ever done, in my limited arts experience. Dickson's work seems really intensive, like it takes a lot of time, thought and planning. There's so many physical layers in works like Emotional Leak and Heaven Starts on the Ground. She uses glass to create concrete structures out of sounds and flat compositions. Dickson commented on how she wants to take the feeling and associations created by architecture and implement them into her work with glass.

            Heaven Starts on the Ground resembles a topographical map in layers and layers of blue-green glass. It represents the space between Earth and the heavens, forcing the viewer to focus on the reality and the present. The layers overlap in irregular formations, creating areas of increasingly clear and increasingly opaque glass. It seems scientific and precise and beautiful.

            For Emotional Leak, Dickson layered hundreds, if not thousands, sheets of glass. She made a three-dimensional model of a leak from the ceiling down to the work it destroyed below. It looks like a sort of exploration of the space in between, what happened between the ceiling and the floor. It made something tangible. The glass is reflective, allowing viewers a distorted, layered look at themselves and their surroundings. The undulations in the glass are organic and sensual, and I find it interesting how Dickson can make something that appears supple out of a material so firm. Overall I think her work is fascinating and makes me curious about the capabilities of glass as a medium.
 
 

 

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