Glass | Catching the Light
Catching the Light takes the form of a Grecian urn, realised in glass and conceived as a vessel that gathers and holds light. The sculpture responds directly to its surroundings, with colour and luminosity shifting throughout the day as light passes across and through the layered surface.
This was my first glass sculpture and I approached it using the same first principles that underpin my work in slate. Each piece of glass was shaped individually by hand from reclaimed glass plates and carefully stacked to build the form layer by layer. Working in this way allowed me to retain control over the overall geometry whilst embracing the subtle variations that occur when a material is shaped and assembled slowly. Once formed, the sculpture was dismantled and rebuilt, with each element securely fixed so the finished piece could be safely installed and lived with.
Here, Catching the Light is shown set on a sandstone base in the grounds of Dalhousie Castle, just south of Edinburgh. The solidity and warmth of the stone provide a grounding counterpoint to the clarity of the glass, while the historic setting gives the sculpture a sense of scale and presence. The glass itself carries a rich, translucent green tone, catching daylight across its surface and within its layers, so that the sculpture appears to glow from the inside out. As the light shifts, so too does the intensity of colour, giving the work a sense of movement without ever becoming animated. After being photographed at Dalhousie Castle, Catching the Light went on to be installed at a private residence in the Caribbean.
Catching the Light marked the beginning of my exploration of glass as a sculptural medium. It remains an important work within my practice, not only for what it represents materially, but for the way it opened up new possibilities while remaining rooted in the same hand-made, layered approach that continues to inform my work today.
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