mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery all images courtesy of mark reigelman

 

 

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle heller gallery, new york city on now until july 30, 2011

 

brooklyn-based artist mark reigelman has created ‘breaking the bottle‘, a site-specific installation on display at new york city’s heller gallery. taking cues from the handmade glass defenses found on fences and rooftops worldwide, this work encrusts twelve household objects, including chairs, lamps, and a bearskin rug, in protective layers of broken shards.

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery‘breaking the bottle’ chairs

 

 

 

the collection is placed on a pedestal with dimensions matching the artist’s childhood living room, arranged to suggest a familiar domestic landscape. however, the green color and crystalline surface texture evoke clipped, performative topiaries of the outdoors: the innate danger and hostility of glass shards make them useful barriers, but they also greatly isolate the objects contained within.

 

reigleman’s abrasive integration of this material in a typically comforting interior subverts expectations to examine increasingly blurred distinctions between public and private domain.

 

breaking-the-glass-mark all objects are true to scale

 

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallerytwelve pieces of furniture have been encrusted in glass

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallerytough kitty

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallerydetail of the glass shards

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery photo studio installation process

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery photo studio installation process

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller galleryinstallation view of ‘breaking the glass’ at hellery gallery

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallerythe objects’ functionality is maintained, such as the lamp’s illumination and the mirror’s reflective properties, to convey a familiar scene

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery glass covering in progress

 

 

 

integrating reigelman’s background in both sculpture and industrial design, the systematic process of ‘breaking the bottle’ took three months to complete. each object is composed of about 40 layers of glass shards, and the installation altogether uses over 1,000 pounds of 100% recycled glass and 20 gallons of adhesive epoxy resin.

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery the glass setting into place

 

mark reigelman: breaking the bottle at heller gallery up close look at the production process