Josepha Gasch-Muche inspects her work during installation.
GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What are you working on?
Josepha Gasch-Muche: I’m currently working on an outdoor sculpture. It consists of two towers, each measuring four meters (13 1/4 feet), in which I will display the Fibonacci sequence using layered glass. The Fibonacci sequence is an infinite series of numbers in which each number equals the sum of the two numbers preceding it: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc. It is named after the Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci, who used it in 1202 to explain the growth of the rabbit population. This sequence of numbers fascinates me because it can be applied to so many natural growth processes. The arrangement of the numbers in the two towers communicates tremendous aesthetic tranquility.
Gasch-Muche's unwearable glass kimono was designed to evoke religious vestments.
I’m also in the process of creating objects on canvas. Three-dimensional, unwearable kimonos in space hung on metal stands. The light energy in these objects elicits associations with clerical robes of light.
Another focus of mine is working in series in order to experience more about an idea. I produced a series of wall objects, always within the range of the black-and-white scale. In this work, I painted the pieces of glass with black-and-white ink before layering them, creating interesting structures and pictorial spaces.
I’m on a constant search for opportunities to develop light effects with my material, much like in Op Art. Intense light-dark light effects that are produced by the opposing directions of the glass and unsettle the eye.
GLASS: What artwork have you experienced recently that has moved you, and got you thinking about your own work?
Josepha: From the beginning, the most important and lasting inspiration for my work has been light. Light appears, briefly flashes, and disappears. It cannot be captured, but in several of my works I succeeded in taming it. This is a great and exciting challenge. I want to design using light. Light has a positive influence on our mind, affects us in a very essential, original way.
Gasch-Muche's wall-hung works are part of a search for new "pictorial spaces."
My objects present the diverse and unlimited variations of the manifestations of light using the medium of glass. Light stages itself in an astonishing and inexhaustible way through the very thin pieces of glass themselves. Experimenting with this material amazes time and again. The wall objects are painting with light; there is an utter lack of pigments. The carriers are always white or black. Light does the painting. Opposing, layered pieces of glass create the composition on the carrier. As a colorless and transparent material, glass requires light for this special type of painting. Daylight is the best light for my objects because it has a greater spectrum.
Josepha Gasch-Muche, 30/6/10, 2010. H 13 3/4, W 29 1/2 in.
GLASS: Where is it possible to see you work ?
Josepha: My works can currently be viewed at the Heller Gallery in New York City in the group exhibition “The Best & The Brightest,” and at the exhibition “lichtschichten“ at the Galerie B in Baden-Baden, Germany. My work is also on display at The Corning Museum of Glass in New York; at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio; at the Lowe Art Museum in Miami; and at the Etienne Gallery in Oisterwijk, the Netherlands. Works that trace the development of my wall art to three-dimensional objects in space are included in the art collections of the Veste Coburg. In addition, an overview of my work can be found on my personal Website.