PAST. 18/3–17/4/2021.
BEING is a light installation that is intended to help bring individuals into the present moment. I wanted to create a safe space where viewers could lose themselves and fully experience the work as well as their responses to the work. Each Light Vessel is an excerpt from the light installation, Being, and are made to be a tool for meditation, personal insight and contemplation. The vessels are handblown and are their shapes are inspired by the fluidity of glass creating organic, flowing forms. The vessels are then filled with water to increase their feeling of magnitude as well as intensify their interaction with the light that passes through them. The Light Vessels are meant to be a mirror for the viewer. Allowing the individual to lose themselves and go within, into the present moment to meet themselves.
BEING. Filmed by Hans Malm with soundtrack by Jesper Målsten.
The Story of Light Vessel 5
Light Vessel 5 is one of my favorite pieces. I love how the piece feels as though it is still moving. There are no wrinkles in the piece. The movement is subtle. Feminine. Almost like a wave moving slowly across the ocean surface. I also love the base of the piece or the “foot” and the curve of the blown glass moving away from it. It exudes elegance and simplicity. I think this is why I love it so much. It is delicate yet powerful at the same time. The piece doesn’t scream in your face “Look at me!”. It doesn’t need to. It almost feels as if the piece knows how beautiful and graceful it is. It does not need external validation. Or someone to tell it what it already knows to be true.
I made Light Vessel 5 in the summer of 2020. I was preparing for a show at DotDotDot in Stockholm where it was later shown. Tone Linghult and Jonas Ionnaou were my assistants. When making a piece this large it is important to have a team of skilled glassblowers to help you make the work as effortlessly as possible. As heavy as it is cold, it feels as though it is twice to three times the weight when it is on the blowpipe. This means you get tired. I get tired, and I need help taking the reheats or shielding from the heat of the glass, so I do not get a heat rash or burned. The intensity of making a blown glass object is exhilarating. There is no adrenaline rush like it. Well, maybe skydiving, but I wouldn’t know. I have not tried that yet.
When making these pieces it is almost like having a conversation with the glass. I go into the process with an idea of the form and an approximate size of the “foot” or base I want to achieve, but the end result is almost always a surprise. In order to achieve the feeling of movement within each piece I “dance” with each one. And when I say “dance” I literally do this. Once I have blown the form, I get the glass as hot as possible without the form collapsing on itself. I then rip the piece out of the re-heating chamber and move with the material until it has an expression I find appealing, or it looks “done”. I can’t force the glass to be what I want it to be. It is a collaboration. Each piece is unique because they each have their own expression. Their own personality. Their own essence. And that is what makes this process so exciting.
Jo Andersson was born in Walnut Creek, California in 1988. She began blowing glass at the age of 19 at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Shortly after receiving her Bachelor of Fine Art with an emphasis in glass, Jo moved to Seattle, WA to work in the glass field professionally. In the spring of 2020 Jo graduated with her Master in CRAFT! with an emphasis in ceramics and glass from Konstfack in Stockholm, Sweden. She is interested in how she can use the material glass with light to create objects and experiences which inspire presence and a feeling of well-being.