April 1 – October 21, 2007
West Bridge Gallery
For this “curious” exhibition, The Corning Museum of Glass digs into its vast collections to showcase more than a hundred wonderfully odd and mysterious objects fashioned of glass, dating from antiquity to the present day.
Ancient amulets to ward away evil; trick drinking glasses; an optical model of the human eye; and variously tinted, tortoiseshell rimmed lens worn by Victorian tourists to frame suitably artistic views of nature – these are among the odd objects in “Curiosities of Glassmaking.”
“Curiosities of Glassmaking,” organized by modern glass curator Tina Oldknow, invites visitors to consider how glass has been used to mimic nature; its mystical and scientific uses over the centuries; and its use by industry to produce an array of everyday items, some quite peculiar and others inspired.
The exhibition title refers to a popular 19th-century manual, Curiosities of Glass Making (1849), published in London by the well-known glassmaker Apsley Pellatt. The impulse to collect and display curiosities is both timeless and universal, of course, and American art institutions such as the Corning Museum have evolved in part from the European tradition of the cabinet of curiosities, which juxtaposes odd, intriguing, and unusual objects, often including archaeological artifacts, geological specimens, and exotic trophy animals.
In that spirit, the exhibition features:
Apotropaic glass (glass used to deflect evil), including ancient and modern eye beads, Japanese magatama amulets (curved beads often found inhumed in mounded graves as offering to deities), and witch balls Popular in 18th-and 19th-century English and American homes, witch balls were often filled with bits of string and other things meant to confuse and repel witches.
Other sections of the exhibition will look at unusual vessels made throughout history, glass that imitates other materials like semi-precious stones and textiles, and glass that naturally occurs in nature. Examples of glass made in nature will include fulgurites (glass made when lightning strikes sand) and tektites (glass from meteorite impacts), as well as unusual, man-made glass specimens such as uranium glass (radioactive) and neodymium glass (which changes color in different lighting). A sample of trinitite, a glass made during the test explosion of the atomic bomb in White Sands, NM, in 1945, will also be on display.
Glass and the natural world have long inspired artists. A section of the exhibition will showcase works in glass by Kiki Smith (Tail, 1997), Michael Rogers (Murmur of the Bees, 2006) and other artists whose work reflects nature.