New Vessels by Michèle Oberdieck
Bringing a touch of colour to the gallery are a series of new vessels by Michèle Oberdieck. Michèle explores balance and asymmetry by looking at shape, surface and colour, using the vessel as a means. A three-dimensional form becomes a gesture or expressive mark. She is drawn to biomorphic shapes found in plant growth and decay such as the delicate forms tulip petals take when making this journey. These beautiful twisted organic shapes reveal the motion of ageing stopped in its tracks. It is this transformation that she aims to capture in the glass.
“I AIM TO CAPTURE MOVEMENT & CHARACTER USING THE FLUIDITY OF BLOWN GLASS BY TURNING AWAY FROM SYMMETRY, IN AN ATTEMPT TO RECREATE THE ORGANIC SHAPES FOUND IN NATURE.”
“The idea for a glass work forms in my head for months. I realize these ideas by sketching and working out the forms in clay before blowing the ideas in glass. Colour samples are thought out and created weeks ahead of time. There’s an immediacy to blown glass. It needs to be worked on quite quickly. You can’t stop for a tea break midway and reconsider your plans. Hot glass cools in seconds and can crack if not heated right away, so planning ahead is crucial.”
– Michèle Oberdieck
"When working with glass, one starts with colour. It moves as the form starts to evolve. Each colour reacts differently to one another, as the opaque and transparent colours move at different speeds. Softer colours become milky and more malleable while harder colours remain rigid, creating defining lines. The proportion of colours used impact a piece dramatically, as does the proportion of transparency revealed.
Discovering how dramatically different light-sources affect colour constantly inspires me, as does the resulting shadows glass-shapes make, creating another dimension.
Vivid, subtle, expressive - it is important how the tone works with the shape. The size of the base affects the proportion of the piece, impacting how the colour appears, as does the width of the rim which controls the amount of light coming through."
– Michèle Oberdieck