Capture
Capture 2013, Solid hot-formed glass and waterjet cut steel, 45cm by 70cm high. The title references different processes of capturing. The movement of hot glass, especially in long twisting and convoluted forms is hard to control and predict, and hard to reheat and alter once it has been stretched into its final form. The glass forms are immediate, they are made in one movement and so capture the cooling state of the fluid glass as it solidifies . The title also refers to the process of the glass being captured digitally through the laser 3d scanning, a surface record of millions of points is created in a virtual space that can be meshed, manipulated, built upon, measured and analysed. Once assembled the sculpture simultaneously occupies a hard physical and a soft virtual space, this parallel existence, for a maker, used to using hand skill to create an object is transformational. The vast majority of the time spent to “make” this piece was at the screen, working out offsets, finding angles and deciding on joint anatomy however the actual making of the work, both the glass elements and the steel armature took comparatively less time. Capture is in the permanent collection of the National Glass Centre Sunderland UK.