OPENING: Can the provocative exhibition “Superposition” break boundaries in the glass art field with

Alexandra Ben-Abba, Peeling Video, 2009. Reflective Fiber Garment H 40, W 20 in. Video: 00:00:44 2009

Hyperopia Projects, a curatorial team comprised of Helen Lee, Alex Rosenberg, and Matt Szosz, will showcase the work of 23 artists included in the highly anticipated juried exhibition “Superposition,” which opens June 2^nd in Seattle’s 619 Western Avenue gallery space, coinciding with (but not officially a part of) the Glass Art Society‘s annual conference. The project team, with an active presence on Facebook, waged a successful Kickstater campaign, attracting nearly $6,700, easily exceeding their initial $4,000 fundraising target. According to the organizers, the show received over 200 submissions from 12 countries and had to add a third round of jurying to the selection process due to the volume and quality of submissions. [Disclosure: GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet editor Andrew Page contributed an essay to the exhibition catalog.] The jury, comprised of respected artists and professors in the glass field Joceylne Prince, Michael Scheiner, Jack Wax and Jin Hongo, deliberated over applications and narrowed the submissions to 23 artists.

Bradley Pitts, EIO (Ellipsoidal Introspective Optic), 2010. Mirror, Alignment tool. Installation dimensions: variable

The selected artists, most of them recent graduates of MFA or BFA glass programs, and several of whom were also shown by the “Post-Glass” project duo Yukanjali (and even includes “Post-Glass” co-curator Anjali Srinivasan’s work). Many of the artists included are well-versed in the medium and tend to take an approach that uses the phenomenological aspects of the material to engage with an idea. Bryan Wilson carves uranium-tinted glass and puts trinities (glass from nuclear explosions) into paperweights. Studio AND (Audra Wolowiec/ Niels Cosman) has been working on an Urban Meteorite project collecting mysterious material from the streets of Brooklyn and engaging with it using the language of science and forensics. Brett Swenson creates images using a blow torch to control the cracks in tempered glass and Keunae Song uses glass and projection to create optical installations. The show also includes a few artists who are know for their craft based approach such as Jay Macdonell who has made a career out of flamboyant blown sculptures but here presents video projections on glass block, and Jacob Vincent whose Website shows a collection of blown and carved vessels. There are also a few artist who have no formal background in glass such as photographer Masa Bajc and digital media artist Naomi Kaly.

Two of those artists that fit the “Superposition” model best are Michelle Mechanic and Bradley Pitts, whose work truly inhabits multiple states and meanings at once. Mechanic, who holds a BFA in glass (RISD ‘02) went on to get her law degree and is a former district attorney in the Bronx, NYC, and now a practicing lawyer. Her artwork examines the difference between codified law and natural law and she uses glass to record and preserve forensic evidence of different human acts. Bradley Pitts, holder of a bachelor and masters from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, uses a variety of technologies to engage different states of the body. Among his many projects, he recently did a multimedia project engaging the sensation of being weightless in parabolic flight.

Rui Sasaki, ICubE, 2010. Ice, video, cement. H 15, W 15, D 15 in. (Ice block) Video: 03:35:34 2010

Bringing together glass-related work from artists on the fringe of the genre, with disparate approaches and backgrounds, to create a dialogue which can exist in the context of contemporary art practice is the stated purpose of, “Superposition.” However, one can’t help but note that 12 of the 23 artists juried into the exhibition hold degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design, as do three of the four jurors and all three members of Hyperopia. While the Hyperopia website extols the virtues of chaos and uncertainty in the growth of creativity and new ideas, it appears that there could have been a degree of certainty in the artists chosen for this exhibition. Whether or not this is because RISD’s approach is uniquely effective at developing experimental and process-based work that suited the exhibition’s parameters, RISD artists (most of whom have graduated in the last 5 years) make up more than half of the artists in the exhibition, leading one to wonder if the goal of bringing together the full panoply of experimental work being done in glass may have suffered.

This isn’t to say that the work presented in “Superposition” won’t be engaging, or the work at a high standard, but the ultimate success of the show is linked to whether it can transcend the narrow glass conversation it seeks to upend, and engage a wider art audience. Having the show in Seattle concurrently with GAS is sure to deliver both opportunities and challenges for Hyperopia Projects in terms of the work’s contextualization and understanding whether it has registered in a broader sense. “Superposition” puts forth an ambitious mission, and, judging from the amount of online support it has received, many artists are hungry for it to succeed. Though the caliber of artists included indicates that “Superposition” will be a notable and provocative exhibition, it remains to be seen whether it has succeeded in its stated goal to break through unnecessarily strict borders for glass art, or whether it may be imposing a new set of borders.

—Kim Harty

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