Giles Bettison

June 27 - July 14 , 2008

Artist Reception: Friday, June 27, 5 - 7 pm

Australian glass artist Giles Bettison has been working over a year developing a new type of murrini for his exhibition “Span—New Work in Murrini Glass. “ Included in the exhibit will be two series of glass sculptures:  the Billet Series and his new Lace Series.   The Billet, a series of contemporary vessel forms, is a continuation of the artist’s exploration of abstract landscapes.  The new Lace Series has a shallow bowl shape and is based on the delicate patterns one sees in fine lace. 

Bettison has always had an avid interest in textiles from cultures around the world.  Patterns inspired by the weavings of countries as diverse as Africa and the Far East appear in his series “Textiles.”  The new Lace Series is an exploration of ideas relating to lace, including the possible historical connections between Venetian Filigrana Glass and Venetian Lace.

The historical connection Bettison is seeking concerns two neighboring islands in Italy:  “I was talking to some people who make lace and remembered hearing stories about how Venetian glass makers on the island of Murano in the 16th and 17th centuries were inspired by the lace that was made on the island of Burano.  The story suggests that these glassmakers devised some of the Filigrana techniques that were invented during these times in homage to the beauty of lace.  I began imagining the kind of patterns these glassmakers could have made using the murrini technique that I use. From there my experiment began.” 

To achieve the tiny intricate pieces of glass that he later arranges into his designs, Bettison had to push the murrini technique further than he has ever done before.  The result is glass that is white on white, just like lace, foregrounding the complex patterns made by thousands of intertwining, thread-like strands of glass.   The viewer attempts to navigate the labyrinthine pathways of “glass lace,” running his or her hand over the surface of the vessel to be sure that it isn’t actually lace after all

The cast glass sculptures of Latchezar Boyadjiev are celebrations of light, color, movement, and freedom, symbolizing the life and aspirations of the artist who fled the Communist bloc in the 1980’s to live in the United States.

Boyadjiev’s current sculptures are immediately recognizable for thier dynamic shapes, simple contour lines, and gorgeous monochromatic colors from which a radiant light emerges. As viewers look closer, however, it becomes apparent that the shape of the sculpture is an abstraction of the human torso, usually female, and that one side is quite different from the reverse. The front side is flat and polished to a smooth finish, providing a prismatic lens into the sculpture’s interior. The reverse is three-dimensional, shaped by the carved interior surfaces of the open mold. It is acid-etched, thus frosty and textural, inviting the hand to caress its curvaceous, softly-formed surface.

Next viewers notice a mysterious line of light traveling through the sculpture, causing subtle tonal gradations as the depth of the glass narrows or thickens. As viewers step aside even a few inches, they realize that viewing the sculpture from slightly different vantage points changes its composition: dark and light areas change places; a channel of light intersects with a mass of color, then playfully moves elsewhere.


Viewers then find various points of entry to explore the sculpture’s depth, both in the rhythmic curves created by the lines of light, but also in the suggested meanings hinted at in Boyadjiev’s titles: Comfort, Concept, Stream, Tranquility. Boyadjiev wants his sculptures to be alive and dynamic, to evoke feelings, and to engage the viewer by using just a few gentle, soft lines and shapes.