Through the looking glass: A world of inspiration at Indian glassmakers exhibition

An exhibition in New Delhi fuses history and contemporary art through the medium of glass. Organised by independent ceramic artist and curator Kristine Michael and artistic director, entrepreneur and art enthusiast Ashwini Pai Bahadur, the Glass Makers Club’s latest show exhibits diverse works by 20 leading studio glassmakers who use myriad processes and techniques like glass blowing, slumping, fusing and casting. The showcase has each artist exploring a single historical glass work belonging to any culture and reinterpreting it in a modern context.

“I believe this exhibition is a vibrant tapestry of contemporary voices engaged in a profound dialogue with historical art,” Bahadur tells The National.

The works allude to a distinct historical context that resonates with each artist. Massachusetts artist and educator Anjali Srinivasan’s work of blown mirrored glass on silicone, Evanescent, derives from India’s Sheesh Mahals. Part of the architectural history of the Indian subcontinent in the 17th century, these mahals became obsolete during British colonisation.

The craft was then inherited by a nomadic community, which disbanded during the Gujarat earthquakes in the 2000s. “In these palaces of mirrors, glass mosaics encrust chambers in mesmerising intricate patterns. The convex mirrors miniaturise and multiply a self-image into a cumulative effect,” Srinivasan explains.

Dating back thousands of years, glass bangles have a long and fascinating history in Indian society. Auspiciously symbolising femininity and marriage, they have been an integral part of Indian culture for centuries. Shattered Tradition and The Alchemy of Broken Bangles by former database programmer Radhika Krish reinterprets the historical significance of glass bangles, delving into their cultural implications while challenging traditional norms associated with them. By breaking the glass bangles in her work, she aims to question societal constraints placed on women and their identities.

“The act of breaking signifies the shattering of rigid stereotypes that have confined women within traditional roles," she says. "This symbolic destruction represents the liberation of women from societal expectations, allowing them to embrace their individuality, strength and beauty beyond the confines of prescribed norms."

A deviation from her expertise in prints, Kavita Nayar uses glass as a medium of expression in her work Fanoush/Lantern. Nayar’s memory of these objects dates back to her childhood. Due to frequent load shedding and power cuts, the lamp had become an integral part of her growing up days in Kolkata and Shantiniketan.

“Almost every evening, studies had to be accomplished in this lamp light. The most irritating part was the frequent intermittent cleaning of the soot that would get collected around the glass chimney,” she recalls.

Anuj Poddar’s Glass Head, in glass and brass, uses various mantras, such as the Gayatri Mantra. This adds a spiritual dimension, as the mantra is a sacred hymn seeking divine guidance and enlightenment. “This infusion aims to evoke a sense of tranquillity and connection with higher consciousness,” says Poddar.

The inspiration for Padma Shri Award recipient, artist and sculptor Hemi Bawa’s artwork Head in Hand, created in cast glass and fibreglass, is the Murano Glass sculpture of the figure from Edvard Munch’s famous 1893 painting The Scream. “My concept involves merging vintage aesthetics with contemporary artistry, symbolising the timeless flow of moments encapsulated within the confines of a bygone era,” she says.

With a predominant palette of black, white and grey and the use of clean geometric forms, Bawa’s Twilight collection is inspired by the Art Deco period. Further, her Honeydew collection is a reinterpretation of the medieval concept of glass objects with blobs of glass in contrasting colours that were made in Syrian glass factories around the 12th century. Her Hourglass works seek inspiration from the elegant design of 1830s hourglasses.

Sculptor and professor at Shantiniketan Sisir Sahana’s glass casting artwork A Genesis of Nature was inspired by a Roman vase in glass made about 2,000 years ago, now a part of the Corning Museum of Glass's collection. “The vase gets transformed into a woman/mother in my vision and inner thinking. I have followed the form of vase and transformed it into an artwork signifying human nature or a genesis in glass of nature,” he explains.

Ismail Plumber’s La Belle Vie, a kiln glass-cast piece with a metal stand, is inspired by French jeweller and glass designer Rene Lalique’s Flora Bella. “The incorporation of diverse human forms and expressions was prevalent in Lalique’s art pieces, which also aided in drawing a broad audience to his work," he says. "His endeavours to make these pieces more accessible to the common people further motivated me to examine the current state of ordinary individuals and infuse it into my own art."

Matthew Piepenbrok’s work references the interior of the rose at the Strasbourg Cathedral in France. After pouring through his art and ideas, it was clear to him that there has been one constant throughout history as seen in temple construction. “The sun is revered and worshipped in all cultures and a thing of the past and present,” he says.

Ranjana Sadhukhan’s The Guardian references a glass portrait of ancient Roman emperor Septimius Severus. “I am illustrating the character of Nandi in this style with improvisation as there are no heavy ornaments, no coronet, and the eyes are also describing the wrath towards egoistic people,” she says.

Several of the works reference the climate crisis that the world is currently facing. Gunilla Kihlgren’s work of handmade solid glass with colour spots on the outer surface, The Globe, is born out of thoughts about our environment and the fact that we are all here together. In similar vein, Nehmat Mongia’s work, Deflated, consisting of waste medicine vials and crushed alcohol bottles, is an attempt to draw attention to rising temperature and global warming. “Metaphorically, I have used medicine vials to depict the idea that it is high time for us to take precautions before it’s too late and we damage the ecosystem,” Mongia explains.

In India, interest in contemporary glass art has gained momentum with exhibitions including Kindling Change at the Serendipity Arts Festival Goa in 2019 and subsequent virtual and physical exhibitions, such as The Human Spirit and Tempered: Poetry In Glass in collaboration with the Inko Centre, in Chennai, in 2022.

Artspeaks India’s virtual inaugural exhibition in 2020, Bodies of Light curated by Lina Vincent presented a solo glass exhibition by Bawa. A public discussion on contemporary glass art followed, held virtually for the first time in India. The club also presented the diverse approaches of 18 contemporary Indian artists in The Glass Menagerie curated by Michael in January.

The Glass Makers Club prides itself for being one of is South Asia’s pioneering forums, dedicated to highlighting and advocating studio art glass. Formed during the pandemic in 2000, the club’s aims to gain glass art the wider recognition, fostering collaboration among artists, writers, collectors and practitioners, as well as collectively addressing challenges faced by glassmakers. The club encourages members to actively contribute to its objectives, fostering discourse through discussions, workshops, publications, exhibitions and other activities to promote, support and elevate the status of glass art in South Asia.

“We are working steadfastly to create an ecosystem for studio art glass in South Asia where it is almost non-existent. We are also working to integrate studio glass into the fine art collecting consciousness of the region,” Bahadur says.

The Hourglass: Pouring the Past into the Future is on display at the Living Tradition Centre, Bikaner House, New Delhi until December 24

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