English
FrançaisThe Creation Project
Introduction
This is Sabina's first major conceptual series and you can view the presentation [PDF] for an overview of the project.
Artist Statement
Excerpt from the Science and Nature page on the BBC website:
THE INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE
- Liquid water
- Chemical building blocks like carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen
- An energy source [such as ultraviolet light, which has a frequency one wavelength shorter than visible light]
In one corner of the Solar System, life abounds. From the frozen lakes in Antarctica to the boiling oceanfloor springs of the Pacific, planet Earth is teeming with life. But these diverse locations all share some common ground. They all contain the essential ingredients needed to create life.
Arrested in four boxes are samples of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Each substance is represented with glass beads at a molecular level and according to its particular chemical characteristics. The boxes allow a view inside through an opening in front as light penetrates through a top slit. A second part of the project represents water in its molecular structure, as well as its bonds and fluidity. Made in a technique closer to traditional Tiffany stained glass, it must be lit from behind to be fully appreciated. And finally, three glasson wood mosaics capture the travel of light in the colours of its visible spectrum. Ultraviolet light, which is just outside the visible spectrum, is the energy source required for the creation of life. Therefore, So in the largest mosaic, where violet light the visible light region closest to ultraviolet is represented, there is a stirring motion, the beginning of an action/creation like movement. Light is an essential part of glass art, and all three components of this series are, one way or another, dependent on it.
On a formal level, The Creation Project addresses the main limitation that I have constantly tried to challenge as an artist working with glass: how can I represent matter, states (liquid, solid, gaseous) and energy with the static material of glass? Simultaneously, I have tried to express visually sensations and emotions: how does running water apprear to the eye? How does one arrest gaseous hydrogen to capture its composition? How can I decompose energy in small particles in order to get the sense of its travel? As Albert Einstein talked about science and emotion in his essay The World As I See It, “[t]he most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”[1]
On a symbolic level, thinking about and seeing the basic ingredients life needs to survive not only gives a perspective on the complexity of who we are and the place we inhabit, but it also humbles the spirit and hopefully unites one in thought with the rest of the world. In the current state of affairs where creationism holds a strong philosophical position, there is a need to beautify science and smooth its public perception as stern and devoid of charm: science can be beautiful, enchanting, soul satisfying. Taking basic elements of life into the ream of conceptual glass art shows that science is indeed, as the philosopher Francis Bacon has described it, “the labour and handicraft of the mind.”[2]
- Einstein, Albert. Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig. New York: Bonzana Books, 1954, p. 811.
- Bacon, Francis and Basil Montagu. The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England: With a Life of the Author. Parry & McMillan , 1848, p. 571.
