- Max Jacquard
- Untold Stories
- 6th March to 12th April 2008
- Images
Zest Gallery presents Untold Stories, a new solo exhibition by critically acclaimed glass artist Max Jacquard. The exhibition is a journey through the Zest Gallery space that begins in the adjacent glass studio and continues through to the gallery, where Max has created a contemporary ‘WunderKabinet’. The journey ends in a darkened inner chamber holding stunning new work combining glass and film.
Untold Stories is centred around ‘Pillow Piece’, a new installation, which is the result of a collaboration between Max and filmmaker Ally Pears. ‘Pillow Piece’ proposes a dream journey that starts and ends in the space of the pillow itself. A simple pillow rendered in perfect cast crystal becomes the projection screen for a filmic journey that takes us through worlds of materials starting just below the surface and into dark and tangled depths and back again to a place of comfort and light.
Max is known for his haunting installations in darkened spaces using cast glass objects combined with sound and light. The effect of his work – as seen in 'Solid Air' at the Crafts Council, 'Sub-Urban Glass' at Gloucester Rd Tube station and the lone figure "Brickman" in the Victoria & Albert Museum – is meditative yet slightly unsettling. As an artist, Max’s narrative language is often concerned with the relationships of glass to other materials and the mediation of light by inanimate glass objects.
In Untold Stories Max’s new and unseen pieces use cast silver and bronze to enrich and offset the symbolic potential of cast glass, which is combined with photography and film to complement the phenomenon Max refers to as ‘the glassy state’. The exhibition shows the progression of Max’s creative output from previous work, such as the British Glass Biennale Winning "For My Lost Loves” Objects, which are shown alongside his new work.
“The fascination with glass as a medium of transformation is, as ever, a strong theme in my work. Glass has this underlying sense of fragility that is almost contradictory to its outward show of brilliance and seductive charm. It reveals both the outer and inner qualities so you get two stories simultaneously. Capturing the time and motion of light with film has a particular relationship to glass – the light is always changing and so is the impression of the glass object on the viewer.” Max Jacquard
Zest Gallery, London’s top destination for contemporary glass art, brings outstanding British and international glass to a wider audience through an exciting, changing exhibition programme alongside an extensive collection of Adam Aaronson’s work. Visitors are also able to tour the adjacent glass studio and enjoy a fascinating insight into the skilled process of glass making.
Entrance is free and all work is available to buy from Zest Gallery.