A
Catalogue of 48 pages was
prepared for Matsushima's solo Exhibit
opening May 29 at Mostly Glass Gallery in
Englewood, NJ. The work will also be
Exhibited at SOFA NY, June 2004.The
Catalogue will contain images of the
estimated 30 pieces Iwao is preparing for hi
solo. Texts from the Catalogue will be
posted here. Below are three of the Essays in
the Catalogue
Glass
making was one of the most unusual and
sophisticated discoveries made by our early
ancestors. Although the exact circumstances
of this discovery are unknown, it probably
took place in southern Mesopotamia (modern
Iraq) more than four millennia ago – that
is, in the late 3rd millennium BC. Man-made
glass was first used to make small beads,
most often blue-colored to imitate ones in
precious lapis lazuli. It took another
stroke of genius several centuries later for
man to adapt this skill to making glass
vessels – small containers made in the
core-form technique. The products of the
early glass industry were practical and
functional, yet this does not do justice to
the skill and artistry that was involved.
Initially, the creation of glass itself must
have seemed to be magical and divinely
inspired. It was the first synthetic
material to be invented by man, and its
unique properties – hard but malleable,
translucent but impermeable, strong but
delicate – meant that it came to be imbued
with special properties. Even today many
societies regard glass as having apotropaic
qualities and use brightly-colored glass
amulets to ward off the evil eye.
As more and
more raw glass was produced in the early
urban civilizations of Mesopotamia and
Egypt, the mysterious attributes of
glassmaking came to be associated more with
the craftsmen who manipulated the hot glass,
turning it into exquisite works of color and
light. Such skills were highly prized and
jealously guarded, while the vessels were
reserved for special use. Most often they
contained rare and expensive perfumes, and
they were used in religious ceremonies and
at the courts of the rich and powerful. The
history of core-forming is long and complex.
The earliest vessels were probably made in
Mesopotamia in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1450
BC), but a rival industry quickly developed
in Egypt, and this came to dominate the
market for glass in the ancient world.
Although recipes for making glass are
preserved in cuneiform tablets, it appears
that the Egyptian glass workers guarded the
secret of core-forming closely, for neither
the Hittites of Anatolia nor the Minoans and
Mycenaeans of the Aegean mastered the
technique. The skill was seemingly lost when
the New Kingdom collapsed in ca. 1070 BC.
The making
of core-formed glass did not revive until
the second half of the 8th century BC. This
new Mesopotamian industry was apparently
small-scale, although its products have been
found scattered right across the ancient
Near East. The vessels may be seen as
inferior to those of the Late Bronze Age,
since they display less creativity in their
shapes and use of color. However, it served
an important role in the development of
core-forming in the eastern Mediterranean
during the mid-6th century BC. Although the
vessels came to be known by 19th-century
archaeologists as ‘Phoenician’ glass, their
shapes copy the standard forms of Greek
pottery – the alabastron, amphoriskos,
aryballos, and oinochoe. These containers
were thus made for the Greek market and were
traded widely across the ancient world.
Although the industry functioned for some
five hundred years, there was little by way
of experimentation and innovation.
Admittedly, the core-form technique imposed
certain restrictions on size, but the
limited repertoire of colors and designs
must have been inspired largely by other
factors. Certainly, in tandem with the
core-form industry, there developed another
that used a casting technique to create open
shapes such as bowls and dishes as well as
closed containers. Here glass workers seem
to have been more willing to experiment with
new shapes, colors, and forms of decoration,
including cold-cutting. The conservatism of
the core-form industry must surely be
attributed to the special position that its
products held in society.
Core-formed
glass continued to be produced until the
very end of the 1st century BC or even into
the first decades of the 1st century AD. By
then, however, the invention of
glass-blowing had revolutionized the ancient
glass industry. Vessels could be produced by
glass-blowers more quickly, easily, and
cheaply than by the traditional method of
core-forming. As mass production took over,
and glass vessels became ubiquitous, the
age-old skill of core-forming was abandoned
and forgotten. Nevertheless, the
fully-fledged Roman glass industry depended
heavily on the skills and techniques that
were first mastered by craftsmen making
core-formed vessels. The manipulation of hot
glass to create trails, handles, rims, and
bases was an essential part of
glass-blowing, but this would not have been
possible without the knowledge gained from
core-forming.
Over the
past century there have been many attempts
to revive the art of core-forming. Some have
been scientific in purpose – experiments
aimed at testing theories about the nature
of the ancient craft. Others have been less
reputable, as glass workers using
traditional methods have not only made
core-formed vessels that imitated ancient
models but also passed their products off as
antiquities. Few, however, have been
inspired to create works of art that seek to
redefine the essence of the ancient vessels.
The work of Iwao Matsushima achieves this
end in a subtle and yet spectacular way. The
basis for all of his compositions is
core-forming, a technique that he has
refined and expanded in a truly remarkable
way. So, although the inspiration for some
of Iwao Matsushima’s pieces (compare the
Vessels above to the right to M5 in the
middle)
comes from Egyptian glass of the second
millennium BC, others (for example, Vessel
M4, top of the page) bear a close resemblance to cast striped
bowls of the early Roman period. This
breadth of knowledge, combined with the
technical mastery that Iwao Matsushima has
acquired over many years of working with
glass, gives his art an eclectic feel,
taking it beyond the constraints of mere
imitation.
Indeed,
many of Iwao Matsushima’s creations,
especially the very distinctive ‘cones’,
transcend the physical and evoke the spirit
and the very essence of ancient glass. This
is how they should be viewed – as magical
objects imbued with deep and secret powers.
The appearance of bands of
pseudo-hieroglyphs (image below) on many of his works may
be seen to reflect the sanctity of the
ancient art. As suggested above, in Egypt
and elsewhere ancient glass workers must
have held a privileged position in society,
similar to that of priests and scribes. They
were keepers of a special knowledge, by
means of which beautiful things were created
that ordinary people could admire but not
fully understand. So it is with Iwao
Matsushima’s work. This exhibition,
organized specially by Mostly Glass Gallery,
allows us a privileged viewing of some of
his creations – the first time that Iwao
Matsushima has had a solo exhibit in
America.
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