Confluence

Opening reception, September 9 from 6-8 PM.

Anna Boothe and Nancy Cohen’s newest collaborative project, Confluence, integrates their research into southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey’s rich glass history, the region’s current scientific glass industry, and the local river system and environs that have played a central role, initially in the 1700s, by providing the necessary materials and distribution capabilities in the growth of this signature industry.

Inspired by glass artifacts revealed in the 2007 unearthing of Philadelphia’s first glass factory during a restructuring of the area’s Interstate 95 corridor, along with functional-decorative production wares produced for household use during the New Jersey’s late 19th C. glass industry heyday, the artists created hundreds of glass elements during their Spring, 2024 residency at WheatonArts’ glass facility in Millville, NJ. In fabricating their glass components, Boothe and Cohen used recycled glass, and employed vintage 19th C. molds and equipment, via a variety of glass-working processes.

The artists combined these glass parts with scientific glass apparatus (seconds donated by a local manufacturer) that they altered by various means to create unique free-standing and wall-mounted sculptures and installations.

Confluence runs the radius between Boothe and Cohen’s initial inspiration points and their newly found visual lexicon. The work holds vestiges of Colonial glass, its palette – greens, blues, ambers - and its utilitarian forms – pitchers, bowls, drinking vessels - while it also pays homage to the multi-textured, sandy and reedy, environment of the local waterways. The overall body of work brings-to-mind an awareness of systems – semi-functional, yet imaginary – and evoke a sinuous, river-like, yet regenerative sense of time and movement. 

Event Images