Speaking Volumes: A conversation with Jeannet Iskandar on her Heller opening tomorrow

Danish artist Jeannet Iskandar makes things complicated, but you wouldn't know that at first glance. From across the room, her ongoing series of deceptively simple spheres appear to be minimalist objects with perfect symmetry. But upon closer examination the cool exteriors give way to an internal world of engrossing intricacy, complex assemblages of individual blown glass elements deformed by gravity and glassblowing tools, and then further transformed by repeated heating in a kiln. Iskandar was once employed by fellow Dane Tobias Mohl, and his influence shows in her appreciation of patterning, which is formed in her work by the selection of individual elements and the jigsaw puzzle of putting them together. Splashes of subdued color — inky blues and somber blacks —punctuate her newest work, which brings new elliptical forms and a larger scale than Iskandar's earlier objects. On the eve of her solo exhibition at New York City's Heller Gallery, the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet spoke by phone with Iskandar from her studio in the seaside city of Ebeltoft, which is an outpost of international glass in Denmark.

GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: The new work appears to be somewhat larger than what you've done previously, which gives them a different presence. Can you talk a bit about how you are approaching your latest works that will debut at Heller Gallery tomorrow evening?
Jeannet Iskandar: I always like to be able to relate to the sculptures with my body, and I can relate to a shape differently when I have the sense it occupies physical space of its own. It's also important to me that they are able to interact with the architecture of the room. In some ways, I want to make them into bodies, themselves, to take up substantial space.

Though I work aesthetically, there are a lot of thoughts that go into each piece. Much of that revolves around focusing in on unique lives, and then zooming out to a larger story of how things change in different stages of your life. As for the shape of the work, I initially think of each piece as a torso, or a container of a story, a collection of baggage. These very simple shapes consist of all these smaller elements that represent our encounters through life, and the different stages and development of an individual. The way these are put together, each affects the one adjacent to it, so you're part of a greater story of yourself.

GLASS: Can you talk a bit about your process, and how these works are actually constructed, which might make what you're saying about the elements interacting more clear?
Jeannet: Each of the elements that make up the final sphere start out as a bubble. I do it all in one go, and follow rules that I create for myself. I don't want to reheat the glass because I want to catch some of the natural pattern from the structure that it takes as it goes from hot to cold. It also gives me a very short period of time where I take control but also let go of control. I lead it in some direction but it also behaves on its own.

I blow a bubble with a large surface area and, as it becomes flat, I pinch it at the end to start making it into a tube. But where the bubble has become a little bit cooler in the surface, we're forcing it to elongate more rapidly than it can so it has to fold itself because it's still moving and warm. The result is this long piece, which, after I anneal it, I cut up to make elements. Each element is completely unique but still very much alike — it’s clear that they’re part of the same family and they belong to the same story. I cut them up into five or six sections and I grind all the edges. I have all these different stages of pattern.

I then start to work with them like puzzle pieces. I decide on the shape and the form, and plant the elements into a bowl of fireproof material. Working my way from the bottom up to the edges, I find ways to fit them together. This is the fun part, mixing the different colors, sandblasting some. As the object takes form, I put it in a kiln, and then I fire it very carefully. They will sink a bit more together than how I made them fit, and they will affect one another a bit. They will start to lean into each other more and shape each other. I repeat this. One sculpture might have four firings, some of them have six firings. The firings are done very delicately to have the elements remain but allow them to be affected by their neighbors. This lets them interfere with each other, sink into each other a little more with each firing.

I make the work in two halves. After the firing, when the elements connect, I remove the fireproof material and join the two halves together. If you look inside the finished work, there's no core, it's hollow — the structure of the final piece is how the individual elements have connected by the way they are leaning.

GLASS: What reaction are you hoping to elicit through your work?
Jeannet: I want the viewer to investigate this line between simplicity and complexity, which of course you can say about life. I want the viewer to get a reward when you engage with it and go to the details, which are super complex. Every piece and element is unique and affecting its neighbors.

As I said before, my main communication is aethestics. I don’t want to preach but I want to invite people to engage more deeply with the work and the ideas that we are part of something that began long before us and will continue on after us. In an age where we are very much consumed by what we view with the eye, it’s an invitation. People can engage or not, they can get out of it what they are ready to explore.

GLASS: Can you talk about what inspires you, and this work in particular?
Jeannet: I used to work for Tobias Mohl, and his amazing patterns, which are completely crazy but so tidily executed, were definitely inspiring. But mostly, when I do look for inspiration, it's very introverted. You could say the work is the sum of me, the way I think, music and the links I make in my mind when I reflect on being here.

I would also say that music has been an inspiration as part of the chains of thoughts around this work. In particular, Ravel's Bolero has always reminded me of a walk, or a journey. As you make your way through life you have all this variation. I like Ravel's repetition of the same pattern with different instruments, and then the variations, which builds the complexity of the total piece of music. This travel and voyage that you take while listening is very simple and beautiful, but also full of detail.

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