Erin Dickson

My work takes an original perspective on the intersection of glass and architecture. As an architect by training, and more recently a glass designer, I use my own experience to evaluate how glass can be manipulated to suit both intentions. When glass is used in architecture, it is too often viewed as a separate component Passed to glass ‘specialists’ or artists for manipulation, it is allowed to become a dissected part of the building. My aim is to remove glass from being just a ‘window’ and enable it to become an architectural design element of its own. My work looks at non-traditional methods of using space and light and using glass to manipulate a viewer’s experience of place.

Although my main body of work is realised in glass, the search for form begins in phenomena that are, actually, formless. My experiments start with a specific place, recording it in photography. Light samples are taken across the area of the image to create 3-dimensional surfaces. Using the effects of depth and distortion in layers of glass, a ‘model’ of the light in space is generated. The resulting abstract forms are, in fact, visual statements of belief. A mortal’s window to Utopia, the work warps the surrounding landscape when one tries to use it, reflecting and distorting images of ourselves and our environment, never allowing us to view our desired Heaven.

In the same way, I take an oblique view into creating ‘functional’ forms. Objects such as the Tumblers takes archetypal forms, deconstruct them, and reassemble them to create virtual object that can be reproduced in glass. Working from the digital interface into the physical world, water jet cutting allows me to work with glass to create unique 3-dimensional works. These new objects bear the marks of their manufacture, and the fabrication gives them new physical and optical qualities. These design works along with my sculptural installations are a manipulation of a viewer’s perception through light, colour and form.