Headlining the 2015 International Flameworking Conference (IFC) at Salem Community College taking place this weekend (March 20 - 22) will be Junichi Kojima, a.k.a, Rose Roads, and David Willis. Collaborative demonstrations by Eric Franklin and Jason Chakravarty will also be a major draw. The three-day event kicks off Friday evening at 7 PM with a presentation by the Chrysler Museum of Art curator of glass, Diane Wright who will deliver a lecture titled "From B.C. to Boro: A Short History of Flameworking" at the Sol and Jean Davidow Performing Arts Theatre at Davidow Hall on the community college's Carneys Point, New Jersey, campus.
Wright's presentation promises to trace "the use of a small flame for creating glass to the dawn of glassmaking history." Wright’s presentation will be followed by a reception honoring the featured artists. The second day of the conference will be focused on demonstrations, and Kojima and Willis will demonstrate on Saturday, March 21 at the Samuel H. Jones Glass Education Center in nearby Alloway, New Jesey. Kojima earned notice in 2011 for his collaborative marbles with Yoshinori Kondo and Daisuke Saito. His work is focused on the use of thousands of tiny dots of glass to build up geometric patterns and full images, work that is not only tremendously difficult but also requires extreme patience.Kojima's work operates on a small scale. In contrast, Willis has developed a mixed-technique proecess that combines flameworking, hot blowing and sculpting, large-scale sculpture, botanical models, mixed media, cold assembly and installation art.
The conference continues on Sunday with a focus on the science, history and art of illuminated borosilicate sculpture as pursued by Jason Chakravarty and Eric Franklin. A panel discussion led by Jenna Efrein, Chakravarty and Franklin will discuss illumination tecniques for borosilicate glass, including the requirements and process of induction charging of hollow forms and its comparison to bombarding. Chakravarty and Franklin were introduced to working with glass and neon while attending Arizona State University.
The conference will also include scientific glass technologist Bob Russell, who will demonstrate on Saturday. A graduate of Salem Community College and Virginia Tech, Russell has worked at Chemglass Life Sciences for 27 years.
For more information, visit www.salemcc.edu/glass or call 856 351 2602.