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Vessel Gallery

August 1 - September 2, 2012

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471 25th Street Oakland, CA 94612
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Creatures Alex Abajian and J. Lin-Hsien Kung at The Tacoma Museum of Glass working on CREATURES
Installation by Alex Abajian + J. Lin-Hsien Kung The two artists are recipients of People's Choice honors and prestigious residency at The Tacoma Museum of Glass. Reception Friday, August 3, 6-9PM It is with great excitement that we present the culmination of this recent residency work.Beili Liu's process drawings will be included as well. Together these artworks employ wind, even breath, as a means to create the work. "I've waited nearly six years to present this installation. These 'Creatures' have morphed and changed. In fact, they've multiplied into an enormous, elegant herd. This work by Jerry and Alex has developed through their time at the recent exceptional residency program at The Tacoma Museum of Glass. The duo has worked tirelessly and in beautiful sychronicity to encapsulate the grace of their vision into the life of these two, sometimes three-legged creatures, most with snouts that bend and curve to examine their surroundings, you, and one another. The wait was well worth it - as great work takes time! In Chinese thought, the world of nature and the world of man are linked, reflecting each other in ways large and small. In Chinese, 'feng' means 'breath, the wind we breath.' Through Abajian, Kung and Liu's work I can put forth a visual representation of these ideologies." - Lonnie Lee STATEMENT Those Creatures… The Creatures were born from making things and working with people. The glassblowing process hasn’t changed very much for a long time, arguably, centuries. Although new technologies for heating and melting have developed, how blown glass is made is limited by what it is, and what it is, dictates what can be done to it. We started exploring these objects at the beginning of 2008 and maybe as early as the end of 2007. It wasn’t until 2009 that these really started taking shape. Alex and I had a bustling design/build company, at that time. We made lots of glass for architects, designers, and artists. Lots of work equals lots of repetition. With lots of repetition details become apparent. We were fixated on those details. The most notable ones governed our movements and thereby our work flow. Although our personal interests are very different, our collective artistic interests manifested with the exploration of these forms. Heat, gravity, and breath are the fundamental elements effecting glassblowing. Heat is the life force of motion Gravity is the inescapable specter that’s always in need of persuasion Breath is the invisible structure setting things in place Transparency and fluidity are what’s most beautiful in glass. They are the distinguishing characteristics separating it from everything else. Transparency is subtlety, it’s invisibility, it’s a suggestion of what may or may not be, and it graciously invites all that’s around without the need of formality. Fluidity is perpetual motion, it’s the vehicle for breath to become rhythm, it’s the unattainable pacesetter that’s always one step ahead. We wanted to take a snapshot of breath and movement frozen in time and governed by a limited process. We're really happy for the residency at the Tacoma Museum of Glass. With some luck and grace the residency appeared allowing us to created this body of work. Alexander Sarkis Abajian graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000 with a Bachelors Degree in Glass Sculpture. Since then he has exhibited nationwide. Alexander Abajian is a prolific young artist untethered by convention. He integrates a variety of different elements to his own sculptures. Whether electroplating metal to glass, combining kiln castings with hand blown accents, manipulating solid pieces of color to forge vessels impregnated with intricate designs, or translating his own figurative paintings into three-dimensional sculptures, Alexander manifests an interminable drive to create. He is on the forefront of glass art, truly utilizing the material as a means of expression, free from the constraints of craft. "I was made in Hong Kong, born in Taiwan, and my parents are from China. I received my BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1999 for Glass Sculpture after a short stint at Hampshire College studying Latin American Literature and the behavior patterns between wolves and sheep dogs. I left the East Coast heading west after college, in part to heal from an accident that left a few titanium pins and stainless steel plates in my head. I couldn’t smell or taste for three years. During this time I moved from New Mexico to Southern California, then finally Oakland. Glass making has been my passport to seeing the world. I’ve traveled through Japan, China, Taiwan, and most recently Scandinavia where I had an opportunity to be in the heart of the Glass Kingdom. I’ve worked on various projects from custom lighting (as seen in the DeYoung museum cafe) to designing custom products (as seen in the Asian Art Museum gift store, S.F). Lots of things inspire me. Most of them are framed by an idea I read a while back. I can neither remember what I read or where I read it. It's definitely wedged in my bookshelf somewhere. I've interpreted the excerpt as such: artists are litmus tests and filters for/of their surroundings. The artist is a filter breathing in their surroundings and breathing out creations. With that in mind I guess I’m inspired by process, moreover processing. I make things so I can be engaged with the world around me." - J. Lin-Hsien Kung "The work you did at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma brought to light a free pass into the material that I am so close with as if some stranger had taken my girlfriend out on the dance floor to let me see some more of her true beauty that I let sleep." - Charlie Parriott AUGUST Artist Talk Series: Tour Artworks in our Exhibitions with the Artists August 11, 2-4PM ARTIST TALK - tour "Creatures" with artists Alex Abajian and J. Lin-Hsien Kung, hear about the inception of this body of work, their lead up to the developement of the work, and finally their most recent residency at Tacoma Museum of Glass. Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11-6PM