Sinew II

Dealing with narratives relating to corporeal vulnerabilities, sinew II is in part initially a response to bone-like ceramic fragments and edges. My intention was to redefine and rearrange broken ceramic ware, using cast glass to extend and exaggerate anatomical references and to unite these forms in a new configuration. My process of making is a pursuit of a personal material language and purposeful ‘rough workmanship’. In order to realise the glass cast I employed digital technologies whilst maintaining a low-tech response to composition and an awkwardness of form.

3D scans of ceramic edges and CAD software were utilised to generate the investment mould for glass casting. This was printed using a 3D digital printer; this process is known as Rapid Tooling and removes the need for a physical pattern. Digital processes were employed alongside conventional exploratory means; for example, clay and plaster props were used to roughly mock up 3 dimensional sketches of potential compositions of the broken ceramics. The orientation of physical objects was then recorded using a microscribe, a gestural piece of kit that integrates the engagement between the physical and CAD software. By aligning cross- reference positions recorded using the microscribe with the scanned ceramic data I could sweep between these points to create 3D pathways that would eventually form the surface of the glass cast. This is an intuitive way of employing digital tools, with unpredictable results. I have deliberately used basic construction methods and sheet glass to maintain immediacy with the materials, and hewn edges to suggest danger and vulnerability.

Sinew II, supported by a critical commentary relevant to the conference theme of Materiality, was peer reviewed and included in the exhibition All Makers Now? at Trelissick House, Cornwall.
Selected for the International Glass Prize 2015 at Glazenhuis, Lommel, Belgium. On Monday 19 January 2015, the jury of the international glass prize – consisting of Hans op de Beeck, Lut Maris, An Moons, Philip Wiesman, Ilse van Roy and Jeroen Maes – selected 61 works from 756 submissions. These artists will be invited to present their work at the international glass prize exhibition in the glass museum glazenhuis in Lommel, Belgium, from April until October 2015.
Sinew II is now in the permanent collection of the Glazenhuis Museum.