November 15 – 16, 2023, 10 am – 12:30 pm

Many thanks to the artist Emily Hunt for her workshop introducing our participants to EXPLORING MATERIALS: Glass & Light during the basic course within the Studio Program at BAI | Berlin Artist Residency, Art School, Arts Incubator, and Live Online Courses & Classes.

“Exploring Materials – Contemporary Glass Artists

The course will give a concise overview of the history and evolution of glass craft artists from various periods in art history. It will then highlight the contemporary examples of artists who use glass as a medium for artistic expression and experimentation. We will discuss the different techniques of glass art such as fusing, stained glass and blown glass, which involve heating and shaping glass in different ways. We will also examine the work of some of the most influential glass artists in the modern period, such as Harry Clarke, Ken Phillips, James Carpenter, Dale Chihuly, Paul Dufour, Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, Ray King, Kerstin Brätsch, Timo Fahler and Crystal Schenk. We will analyse how they use glass to create aesthetic effects and convey meanings.
In the practical part of the class, we will learn how to create our own stained-glass simulation using black card. We will sketch a design based on our own inspiration based on either a figure or object. We will then cut our sketch into segments and choose colors that correspond to content and meaning. We will assemble these segments on a window frame to construct a collaborative window art piece with fellow participants. This will allow us to experiment with color theory, light transmission and composition principles.

Exploring Materials – Contemporary artists using light & colour

The course will continue with a deeper exploration of contemporary artists that use glass in their practice. We will also examine other mediums such as gelatin that allow artists to manipulate light in a transient way. We will discuss the work of Harry Smith, Jenna Kaës, Sharona Franklin, Anna May Kirk, Johan & Justin Lowe, Gitte Maria, Shannon Garden-Smith, Shannon Bool and Courtney Baker. We will analyze how they use glass and gelatin to create aesthetic effects and convey meanings.

We will resume from the previous day and experiment with watercolour paints on plastic sheets to simulate stained glass. We will complete the collaborative window piece and share our feedback with the other participants. We will evaluate the narrative and flow of the window piece and reflect on the successes and failures of the project.” (Text by courtesy of Emily Hunt)

Day 1

10 am – 10.30 am
Presentation of lecture on the contemporary and historical glass artists.

10.30 am – 11.30 am
We will begin with deciding on an image to be cut into shapes, either with text or without. The artist will need to reflect on how best to abstractly segment a drawing.

11.30 am – 12.30 pm
In preparation for tomorrow’s lesson, the participants will create watercolour paintings on clear plastic to be used for the collage/faux stained glass work the next day.

Day 2

10 am – 10.30 am
Presentation of lecture on the contemporary glass artist and contemporary artists that ultlise transparent materials.

10.30 am – 11.30 am
Gluing and placing of transparent films on black cut-out frame.

11.30 am – 12.30 pm
Installation of group exhibition on windows of BAI. Group discussion of work that was produced.

Emily Hunt (born Sydney, 1981) creates ornamental, figurative ceramics. Her history as a rare-book dealer has informed her encyclopedic approach to her art-making, taking influences from the history of ornament, visionary art, big-ego personalities and scholarly magical texts. She creates world-building installations that reflect automatism in ceramic forms. Her work articulates the concept of the collapse of a macro & micro world view, and walking as a magical tool. From 2017 to 2018, she created large new body of ceramics and etchings for exhibition in Second Sight: Witchcraft, Ritual, Power at UQ Art Museum (AU). Her etchings were installed on alongside Hans Baldung Grien and Albrecht Dürer. The invitation to create work for an exhibition about witchcraft was a turning point in her research and Hunt started to delve into the earliest representations of women as witches. The result has been her on-going fascination into the history of western esotericism, magick and the occult in print history.

More information on the Emily Hunt Website and on Instagram.