Fragile Witness: Sculptural Dialogues in Glass

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.