Glass blowing and dance
Matthias Sperling and Robin Dingemans dancing in Sing in Sand and Roar in Furnace Fire
Neil Wissink has created a short film – Sing in Sand and Roar in Furnace Fire - for the new Crafts Council touring exhibition; Breath Taking: Revealing a new wave in British glass blowing. Breath Taking launched at Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton, where it runs until 19 March 2011 before touring.
The film can be seen on the Crafts Council’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/craftscouncil
Glassblowing is highly physical. It involves the controlled, balletic, often repetitious and precise co-ordination of two people working together. Sing in Sand and Roar in Furnace Fire was commissioned to embody this physical involvement and the communication inherent in glassblowing practice.
The choreography by Matthias Sperling is set to a sound score by Scanner, which was based on recordings of glassblowers at work in Stewart Hearn’s studio.
A duet between two dancers (Sperling and Robin Dingemans) involves contact work to represent the essential elements of trust, cooperation and synchronization in glassblowing. The background sound is of furnace, equipment being used and occasional talking between makers. The bodies of the dancers segue from representing pieces of equipment to fluid glass to glassblowers working their medium.
“Matthias and Robin wanted to be as practical as possible with movement in their imaginative response to this craft. Removing the glass objects they instead use each other as the material. Through the actions of moulding, stirring, cracking, twisting and handling they show the co-dependence that happens between a glass and material.” Siobhan Davies CBE, choreographer and founder of Siobhan Davies Dance Studio and Crafts Council Craft Champion.
Breath Taking presents blown glass work by 22 UK makers and two commissioned films. The glass in the exhibition illustrates a contemporary and lyrical approach to the age-old process of glass blowing. www.breath-taking.org.uk
The exhibition is designed by design collective Glass Hill and acclaimed graphic designer Sara De Bondt has created an inventive glass-inspired graphic scheme.
ENDS
For more press images and information please contact Jill Read in the Crafts Council Press Office on Tel: +44 (0) 20 7806 2549, Email: media@craftscouncil.org.uk
Notes to Editors
• The makers featured in Breath Taking are Dominic Cooney, Anna Dickinson, Committee, El Ultimo Grito, Stewart Hearn, Carrie Fertig, Shelley James, Joanna Manousis, James Maskrey, Carl Nordbruch, Jessica Lloyd-Jones, Stephen Proctor, Layne Rowe, Elaine Sheldon, Sam Sweet, Louis Thompson, Ben Walters, Richard Wheater, Christopher Williams, Kate Williams, Emma Woffenden and Rachael Woodman
• Bilston Craft Gallery is the largest dedicated craft venue in the West Midlands with exhibitions featuring the best in contemporary ceramics, glass, jewellery, textiles, metalwork and woodwork.
Bilston Craft Gallery
Mount Pleasant
Bilston
West Midlands
WV14 7LU
Tel: 01902 552 507
Email: BilstonCraftGallery@wolverhampton.gov.uk
• Crafts Council Craft Champions are; Linda Barker, Priscilla Carluccio, Sir Terence Conran, Siobhan Davies CBE, Duke of Devonshire, Norman Foster, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Tricia Guild OBE, Sir Mark Jones, Jude Kelly OBE, Cath Kidston, Corin Mellor, Michelle Ogundehin, Grayson Perry, Jon Snow, Sheila Teague, Sandi Toksvig, Sir John Tusa and Jeanette Winterson OBE and Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey OBE. They all signed up to the Craft Matters campaign at www.craftmatters.org.uk to say that craft mattered to them.
• The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft.
o We believe that craft plays a dynamic and vigorous role in the UK’s social, economic and cultural life.
o We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make, see, collect and learn about craft.
o We believe that the strength of craft lies in its use of traditional and contemporary techniques, ideas and materials to make extraordinary new work.
o We believe that the future of craft lies in nurturing talent; children and young people must be able to learn about craft at school and have access to excellent teaching throughout their education.
• 12% of the UK population visited a craft exhibition in 2009/10, and 18% participated in craft activity in the same year (DCMS/ACE Taking Part data update August 2010). (Taking Part is an ongoing survey being carried out by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England (ACE).
• More than 2.8 million visits were made to the Crafts Council website in 2009. To find out everything you need to know about where to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk
• The Crafts Council Collection was established in 1972 and covers the whole range of contemporary craft practice with 1,400 objects from both established figures and upcoming names. Objects in the Collection are available for loan. For more information on borrowing from the Collection, please visit the Crafts Council website or contact Birgit Dohrendorf, Registrar, Crafts Council, tel: 020 7806 2525, email: b_dohrendorf@craftscouncil.org.uk . Images of all objects can also be viewed in our online image library through Photostore on the website.
• The Crafts Council is supported by Arts Council England. Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. As the national development agency for the arts, it supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Between 2008 and 2011, Arts Council England will invest £1.3 billion of public money from government and a further £0.3 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.
