Welcome to the Glass Age

142 Belgian glass artist Inge Panneels was able to introduce her approach, including her artwork Material Journey  (2018), which is a social commentary on the Anthropocene, a concept which states the major geological impact humans have had on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Her work asks us to explore the impact that we have as makers. Panneels calculated the carbon footprint of her artwork to detail the energy that went into the creation of it (Figure 9.3). Costa Rican Glass artist, Juli Bolaños-Durman repurposes found glass objects which she transforms into artefacts; each tell a unique narrative (Figure 9.4). She is based in Edinburgh and completed her MFA at Edinburgh College of Art in 2013. Finally, British Glass artist Gregory Alliss shared his working approach and a range of kiln cast sculptures made from recycled cathode ray tube (CRT) television glass (Figure 9.5). He is currently studying towards his Ph.D at Edinburgh College of Art, exploring sustainability in studio glass practice. His work is a strong commentary on the impact glass studio practice has on the environment as well as questioning the materials we use. His research is focused on finding low-impact alternatives for casting and for creating refractory moulds, to advance a more sustainable studio practice. During their 2021 conference, the Glass Art Society organised ‘Trace’ the Virtual 2021 Green exhibition exploring sustainable glass art. The theme was devised to showcase the impact that many glass artists have on the social commentary around sustainability within glass art practice. The work of 30 glass artists was shown online [1], including work by British artist Abigail Reynolds, who created a film about making glass from locally sourced materials. She collected kelp that she made into ash to create a flux that could be added to beach sand, which she melted in a hand-built furnace to make glass. Other notable artists selected were Korean glass artist Min Haeng Kang, she transforms leftover waste by rearranging it into cell forms, and American glass artist Christopher Kerr-Ayer, who uses found and ready-made objects which are cold assembled (without heat) to create his artworks. ‘Waste Glass Landscape’, is a piece of my own work, Figure 9.3. Inge Panneels, ‘Material Journey’, 2018, cast glass boat with a rubber plughole atop a fused glass wave, with poem text in the background. Source: Inge Panneels.