colin rennie

Musee Atelier Du Verre

Rennie was invited to be artist in residence at the prestigious Museum and studio in septmber 2006 for an 8 week period to develop and exhibit a series of new works.

Varitas

A series of ten evolving forms in a sequence of pairs of opposite forms in two scales, large and small. The pod, symbolic of introversion, (i) and (I), and the trumpet, of extroversion, (e) and (E). The set evolve through a series of versions where the parts change scale and struggle for position.

The sequence is structured as all the permutations of four objects in commutative pairs. The whole set being denoted as:

{(i,i){i,I)(I,e)(I,I)(I,E)(E,E)(E,i)(e,I)(e,E)(e,e)}

The set alludes to the futility of expressing a complex set of conditions in a polar opposing form. There is always complexity and conflict in the reduction and labelling of a condition, (in Rennie’s case that of dyslexia), as part of a spectrum, which is after considerable study being more accurately represented as a plane of conditions that interrelate.

Reducere

The series of seven works made in this series are dome bell jars, each with a modelled specimen in white glass contained inside. Each of the contents are inspired by various organic forms, from lilly stamens, horn fungi and radiolarian, the specimens are contained within an opalescent frosted glass dome. The specimens are simplifications and, colourless distillations of the organic objects they represent, drawing inspiration from the botanical and biological practices of the late 19th century when formaldehyde was used extensively to preserve soft bodied tissues for scientific study. The view of the contents of the jars is modulated, the frosted exterior of the bell jars blur the view of the specimen spreading its image out, whereas the planar-concave lens reduces and distorts. The viewer is never given a full view of the specimen which remains mysterious inside its protective closh The Made during the residency at the Muse Attellier du Verre in Sars Potteries France