Corning Museum of Glass

Museum Members at the Donor Level and above are invited to attend the  2012 Rakow Commission lecture by artist Steffen Dam. The lecture is being presented as part of the Museum’s Annual Seminar on Glass. It will be followed by a private reception in honor of the artist. Both the lecture and reception are free to Museum Members at the Donor level and above.

Danish artist Steffen Dam’s unique works, inspired by the natural world, take the form of collections of “specimens.”  His sculptures have been compared to the lampworked flowers and sea creatures of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the naturalist drawings of Ernst Haeckel, and even to the Wunderkammer specimens collected by the 17th-century collector Ole Worm.

However, unlike these well-known figures of science, Dam does not imitate the natural world in his work. He creates his specimens and cabinets of curiosity from memory, embracing spontaneity and unexpected results. Dam says, “My cylinders contain nothing that exists in the ocean, my specimens are plausible but not from this world, my plants are only to be found in my compost heap, and my flowers are still unnamed.” For the Rakow Commission, he will create a Flower Block made of 24 parts.

The Rakow Commission is awarded annually to up-and-coming and established artists whose work is not yet represented in the Museum’s collection.

Please RSVP to 607.438.5600 or [email protected] by October 15.