Sunderland Glass Centre - The Glass Delusion exhibition:
"The Glass Delusion" was the name given in the late Middle Ages and Baroque times to a form of depression. The syndrome evokes a psychological separation between reality and imagination.
Sufferers were obsessive, compulsive, driven by irrational fears and envisioned themselves to be made of glass, hence delicate and vulnerable to scrutiny. More than any other material glass lends itself to speculations: as a transparent membrane it separates and connects, magnifies yet shrinks, reflects and deforms; it is a barrier, yet allows light to pass through it, it can be delicate as well as deadly and its attributes are appropriated in many symbolic ways: the Glass Brain and the Glass Man; mirror image and alter ego, Doppelganger and split personality all come to mind. It is this duality, the ability to combine opposites, that is the inspiration for this exhibition of contemporary art, artefacts and scientific objects that tell the story of human attempts to reconcile the physical and mental worlds.
Curated by Grainne Sweeney, National Glass Centre and guest curator, Alessandra Pace.
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| This was just a piece of broken glass presented in a glass case. |
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| Glass Lungs |
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| A series of glass panels separated by repelling magnets which prevent the glass sheets from falling into each other. |
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| This is the magnet glass from the front. I call it the matrix - it reminds me of the slow motion bullets. |
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| Fragile little lungs. Just say no to smoking kids. |
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| This was a bowl shaped object and when you looked inside the top it was actually a coil of glass. |
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| As you walked into the glass centre these panels were suspended above you and caught the light producing various rainbow shades. |
