The Glass Room, 2016
hand cast recycled glass bricks and neon
6,000 x 6,000 x 3,000 mm
I was born in 1972, the year that the Tate Gallery in London purchased Equivalent VIII by Carl Andre. Andre’s work consists of 120 identical bricks stacked on the floor in two layers in a six-by-10 foot rectangle. Equivalent VIII represents a pivotal moment in art and remains an iconic work in the history of 20th century art.
By contrast, my glass bricks are like individual portraits of the humble ‘cinder block’. Each brick is hand cast in a bespoke manner from recycled glass in a time consuming process. The Glass Room stands as an antithesis of industrial mass-produced building materials. Each brick is slightly different depending on the way the glass melted in the kiln, creating the feeling of living cells and walls.
– Gregor Kregar