White Light/White Heat: Contemporary Artists & Glass, Wallace Collection

Glass, like pottery, is to many still on the “crafts” side of the arts/crafts divide, but White Light/White Heat attempts to change that. Conceived as an event for the 55th Venice Biennale, 2013, this collaboration between the Berengo Glass Studio, Venice, the London College of Fashion and the Wallace Collection features the work of major contemporary artists and designers, many using glass as a medium for the first time.

Having been on show in Venice since 1 June, a selection of the works are now coming to the Wallace Collection, including pieces by Tracey Emin, Charlotte Hodes, Polly Apfelbaum, Jan Fabre, Meekyoung Shin, Koen Vanmechelen and Hew Locke. Many have not worked with glass before, but have made their names in other diverse, unorthodox, craft-based ranges of materials: Emin and quilts, Hodes and papercuts/ceramics, Apfelbaum and velvet, Meetyoung Shin and soap, and Koen Vanmechelen and chickens. Yes, chickens. He is the founder of the ‘Cosmopolitan Chicken Project’ (1999); a plan to slowly selectively breed a chicken with genes from the planet’s entire chicken population.

The Berengo Studio is on the famous glassmaking island of Murano, Venice. Created by Adriano Berengo in 1989, it takes its inspiration from an earlier generation of Murano glassmakers who would collaborate with masters such as Picasso, Chagall and Fontana to create fine art works in the specialist medium of glass, as a foundry would create complex works in bronze or Vallauris potters would make Picasso’s ceramics. Through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, glass fell out of favour as a medium, but the Berengo Studio is leading the charge for fine art glassware, specifically by artists who do not normally work with glass. This should well be an enlightening, magical show.

Admission: FREE

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