Glistening, gossamer math problems? Jewel-toned, crystalline growths? Candy-colored, oversized anemone? The Bullseye Connection Gallery presents What on Earth, on view May 3 – June 11, 2005.
Portland, OR –The Bullseye Connection Gallery presents “What on Earth” from May 3 – June 11, 2005, featuring enigmatic forms by Bennett Battaile, Anja Isphording and Dafna Kaffeman. The opening reception on May 3 will feature an artist lecture and 3-D slide show by Bennett Battaile.
“I like to work in sculpture, rather than flat images, for the way it can stretch the mind,” says Battaile, whose impossibly delicate flameworked glass sculptures are beautiful explorations of mathematical concepts. “Our senses are basically two-dimensional: eyes give us flat images plus a sense of distance, which is a limited and indirect way to perceive three dimensions. I believe we’re attracted to fire, bird flocks, clouds, and falling snow because they stretch our spatial sense. Besides this sensory limitation, we also have baggage from our evolutionary heritage. Our perceptions are tuned to things like fruits, faces, hills, and trees, so when some not-found-in-nature mathematical shape crops up it throws the system for a loop in fascinating ways.” Battaile is a Portland artist and mathematician and co-authored the original SIGRAPH Radiosity paper.
Anja Isphording, a German-born artist currently living in Vancouver, B.C., creates organic forms in wax and then kiln casts in glass. “There are two reasons why I’m so happy with the lost wax technique and kiln casting,” says Isphording. “First, because I’m able to determine every aspect of a piece myself, from the first sketch to the last polishing. Second, because it’s such a slow process, it gives me the feeling that I let a piece really grow.” Isphording originally trained in glass engraving under Franz X. Hoeller. Her work is included in numerous international public collections.
“It is very important for me to try to ‘touch’ the material, to make it more accessible for me and for the viewer,” explains Dafna Kaffeman of her rounded, often spiky forms in glass and silicone. “Glass for me is a way to express thoughts, desires, wishes, and to tell stories. In my work I try to stretch the natural abilities of the material to its limits…I combine glass with other materials in order to change its natural characteristics.” Kaffeman works from her studio in Tel-Aviv and lectures at the glass department of the Bezalel Art academy in Jerusalem.
Download: What on Earth April 25, 2005