Fragile Witness: Sculptural Dialogues in Glass
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Visual Arts
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Imaging and Digital Arts
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This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by UMBC for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please see http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/repro.php or contact Special Collections at speccoll(at)umbc.edu
This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by UMBC for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please see http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/repro.php or contact Special Collections at speccoll(at)umbc.edu
Abstract
“Fragile Witness: Sculptural Dialogues in Glass” comprises four conceptually interwoven works—Sarcophagus, Gasps, Untitled sculptures, and Milk and Blood—that explore resilience, fragility, and the dissolution of personal identity into collective experience. Using glass as a medium, the works navigate themes of memory, sacrifice, and the sacred in the mundane, with content illuminated through what I call a revealing gesture.Sarcophagus evokes skeletal forms to reflect on unspoken sacrifice, while Gasps suspends glass spheres shot through with bloody-looking dirt, embodying purity's fragility. Untitled sculptures explore strength and vulnerability through shifting reflections, and Milk and Blood transforms tableware into symbolic vessels marked by milk and blood residue, invoking themes of nourishment and ritual.
Drawing on my post-Soviet upbringing and influences from artist Vera Mukhina and her position with the Russian Avant-Garde art, this series of works examines individualism, inviting viewers to engage in shared acts of witnessing and collective reflection.