Circus of Spheres / Cirque de Sphères - Hardcover

Guggisberg, Monica; Baldwin, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8874391773 ISBN 13: 9788874391776

Publisher: 5Continents, 2008

Synopsis

This book accompanies a major exhibition in the Carte Blanche series at the Musée de Design et d’arts Appliqués Contemporains, Lausenne, Switzerland, devoted to the internationally acclaimed Swiss art glassmakers. The plan is to exhibit various aspects of their activity, ranging from design to artistic research, in collaboration with prestigious companies such as Venini of Italy and Schlaepfer, famous in Switzerland in the field of textiles. Moon Circus, the sculpture installation created for Venini, is a suite of blown glass spheres with delicately crafted surfaces, mounted on gracefully curved vertical metal rods which are attached to a metal frame. The artists use a range of colours and techniques to create a work made entirely by mouth and by hand. Preparatory drawings and sketches of the finished work form a diptych with the pieces, illustrating the working process.

A Circus of Spheres highlights the sculpturally formal and aesthetically experimental quality of Baldwin and Guggisberg’s work in an ensemble of five sculptures which elaborate on the theme of the sphere.

The Guardians series was undertaken in 1996 for the first art glass biennial "Venezia Aperto Vetro". The soaring forms and accentuated modelling of the surfaces echo the fabrics of Screen Textiles, next to which they will be displayed.

Screen Textiles is the result of Baldwin and Guggisberg’s first collaboration with the textile industry and fashion; in partnership with the Swiss firm Schlaepfer, they were able to transpose the wonderful decorative motifs of their glasswork onto fabrics.

The book features a wealth of illustrations, as well as an interview with the artists, and comments by artists and personalities in the field of the Decorative Arts and Design.

About this title

From the Publisher:

A wide range of recent work from leading art glassmakers Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg

Includes work for Venini, preparatory drawings to show the working process, and the artists’ first ventures into textiles and fashion

From the Author:

Monica Guggisberg (1955, Berne). Trained in glass-blowing techniques in Switzerland where she had her studio, and then in Sweden where she met Philip Baldwin.

Philip Baldwin (1947, New York). Studied Plastic Arts in the United States, and glass at Orrefors in Sweden.

Both artists were assistants to the master glassmakers Wilke Adolfsson and Ann Wolff. They opened a studio together at Nonfoux (Switzerland) in 1982, that they left to open a second one in Paris in 2001.

Carte Blanche is an initiative of MUDAC (Musée de Design et d’arts Appliqués Contemporains) allowing Swiss and international artists to present a selection of recent work, and to create and a piece expressly for the occasion, which they also choose how to display.

About this edition

• Publisher: 5Continents
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 8874391773
• ISBN 13: 9788874391776
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 88