matali crasset + vincent breed: cuttings at granville gallery

matali crasset + vincent breed: cuttings granville gallery, paris may 19th to july 1st, 2011

‘cuttings’ by matali crasset + vincent breed

for the past ten years or so, dutch glass blower vincent breed has been blowing objects conceived by paris-based designer matali crasset. so, when jean-pierre bruaire and catherine melotte of granville gallery approached crasset to propose a project with another artist for their parisian space, she immediately thought of a collaboration with breed. ‘for this project, I wanted to work closely with vincent. the starting point was to make a suite of objects which would not be predetermined by vincent’s blowing and to make the pieces without a mould,’ says crasset.

breed blows glass directly on top of the clusters of branches which act as a sort of mould

through her work, crasset often refers to forms in nature, not for nostalgic purposes, but more for their structural capacities. together with breed, she has developed a series of vessels entitled ‘cuttings’ which are the result of a common reflection about one-off glass objects that pay homage to nature. to express this, the basis of the duo’s exhibition at granville is presented as a process.

up close look at how the glass fuses into a bundle of branches

in developing ‘cuttings’, crasset and breend chose a tree in which they marked parts of the branches, cutting them and keeping the selected elements to create bundles that are used as a kind of mould. it is within these clusters of branches that breed has blown glass, burning into the wood and picking up imprints of tree textures. this methodology creates an original form:

the glass bubble goes from a fluid form to undulations and deformations which evoke matter in a boiling fluid state.

the length of breed’s breath and the burnt form created by the glass in fusion results in a set of pieces which prolong

and question the memory of nature in a subtle manner.

bundles are held together by webbed straps

mould with glass removed revealing a burnt heart

the liquid glass picks up the textures of the branches

the length of each of breed’s blows determines the detail of the impressions 

the production process:

the chosen tree and marks made to indicate where the cuts should be made

branch cuttings

branches are cut at various lengths and then arranged in bundles which form the moulds

inside glass blower vincent breed’s workspace

breed blows hot glass into the bundles which burns into the heart of these clusters of branches imprinting the fluid lass with the textures of the tree