Outdoor Sculpture 2012 – Fertile Landscapes
31 March - 4 November 2012
Artworks in glass by Matt Durran and Max Jacquard
The summer at Kessle Barton promises to be a hotbed of growth and fertility for budding students and connoisseurs of light and landscape.
Max Jacquard and Matt Durran are well known for pushing the boundaries both in technique and artistic language in the medium of glass. Most notably in the Jerwood 2003 touring Exhibition where Durran presented a laboratory-like representation of an artists studio and in Solid Air (Crafts Council 2002) Jacquard showed an installation of life sized hanging glass figures. They have since collaborated on a number of exhibitions including the influential New London Glass group shows.
Now the two turn their attention to the use of glass in exploring external and internal worlds. In spring they will galvanise the gardens at Kessle Barton with a series of installations. Later in the season they will transform the gallery into a place where inner worlds can be discovered with Greenhouse: More Artworks in Glass Exhibition (30 June – 27 August 2012).
Matt Durran’s installations work like a series of accents floating above the vegetation. Using up-cycled glass materials he creates marks in the landscape that swoop like a flock of birds or hover like a cloud of insects. These multiple points of light seem to interact with more architectonic forms resembling beehives, shrines and weather stations. Constantly changing with the light and weather conditions they make references to the relationship between plants, animals and humans and lend an other-worldly quality to the landscape.
Max Jacquard meanwhile will work with a series of figures that resemble scarecrows or characters from rural folklore. These haunting images constructed from patchworks of glass are both guardians of the flower borders and human archetypes, wandering in nature like pilgrims on a spiritual quest.
The installations of both Durran and Jacquard speak of a humble stewardship of the land, not trying to dominate but rather to interact with it in a way that reflects the ethos of Kestle Barton’s garden design.
To coincide with the opening of their Greenhouse exhibition in the gallery the artists will host a series of workshops that explore the new and sustainable use of glass. Working with hot glass specialist Jon Lewis they will transform up-cycled bottle glass working from a portable furnace. Using innovative assembly techniques they will also introduce students to the possibilities of glass collage and the object in the natural environment.
