Allan McCollum, Fulgurite Project 1998, using lightning to create glass

Installation: University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Florida, 1998. Over 10,000 casts of an
actual fulgurite produced by lightning triggered by the artist at the International Center for Lightning Research at
Camp Blanding, Florida.

"It's hard to imagine how memory and meaning could exist without language — both are always only available through some sort of representation. I imagine that objects having meaning — artworks, keepsakes, people, stones — could not exist for us without their "literature." How could a bolt of lightning, lasting only for the tiniest fraction of a second, be understood otherwise? Events this brief will always evade our synapses — and their existence will always only exist after the fact, amongst one's representations. Perhaps a true picture of how an artwork has meaning could be constructed if the literature supporting the artwork was put on display at the same time, along with it. The Petrified Lightning project was created to explore this idea — an exhibition to enact the "event" as always already absent, with the residue and the meaning always already appearing in its place."
-- Allan McCollum

to read more about this project click here

Susan Glasgow Taylor- Pittsburgh Glass Center Resident Artist Project- "Absence Of Body"

Susan Glasgow Taylor is currently completing a 2 month residency at Pittsburgh glass Center. Her project is for a solo show called "Absence of Body" opening October 3, 2008- January 3, 2009. The installation she is planning is called "The Communal Nest" made up of several hundred glass twigs that have been created from artists from all over the world. Each artist is also invited to send a quote to be transferred onto vellum strips and woven into the nest. The center of the nest will be lined with glass feathers and a large, sewn glass pillow with a indentation in the top as though someone has just recently left. Surrounding the nest will be 5-6 additional sewn glass pieces supporting the concept of "Absence Of Body"

*The exhibition will benefit both the PGC and local women's shelter, Bethlehem Haven, and will coincide with the International Women's FOrum also being held in Pittsburgh that month.

Some of Susan's other work below

"RASPBERRY SWIRL" #145, 2007
Susan Glasgow Taylor
glass/mixed media
4 X 7 1/2 X 7 1/2 inches
350-0121

SIZE 8 SEWN GLASS CORSET
2004
glass
12 X 12 X 10 inches
350-0095

Liza Lou- featured artist- breaking boundaries- she beads the world!!!

Liza Lou beads the world. She states "I began as a painter and I walked into a bead store and it was just like a flash in my mind. I just thought, 'My God, that's the most amazing paint I've ever seen."

In school she was ostracized for her choice of materials, she explains that most thought she was making jewelry. "I had become a sort of craft person, and that's not a good thing apparently," says Lou. "If you're doing something with beads then your're a craft person. If you're making paintings, you're an artist. You're a fine artist and there were very distinct categories."

Her response was to leave school and pursue her passion- what would you do???

To read more articles and see more images of her work click below

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wmagazine

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