CYBELE VESSEL
Half white half transparent hand-blown glass infused with sand
Artist Statement
Cybele is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forerunner in the earliest neolithic at Çatalhöyük, where statues of voluptuous women have been found in archeological research. She was known as the creator of nature. My ancestors are from Kayseri, a modern city near Çatalhöyük, hence the title of the work gets its inspiration from my roots. Few of the earliest obsidian glass objects were found at this site.
I grew up in Istanbul, and influenced by its traditional craftsmanship there . One particular glass technique which got my attention was Beykoz Glassware, a type of a lattimi glass adapted by the Ottomans in the 18th Century. A way of telling an original Beykozware is to hold it up to a light source and look for red tints in milky white glass. This is due to the sand in glass composition.
In my current work, I infuse glass with sands from different origins. My trip to Iceland was the beginning of my main work: I found out black sand contains obsidian. I have made obsidian glass vessels long before learning about Çatalhöyük. I was happy to discover this overlap of materials with intangible cultural heritage.
The vessel is handmade with incalmo technique. Two separate glass pieces are fused in the middle. Half of the vessel is opaque white as a reference to Beykozware and the top half is glass infused with Rejnisfjara sand contains obsidian. This vessel draws a full circle of cultural heritage, technical knowledge and psychogeography
Artwork details
ø 20 x 30h cm
Hand-blown glass with infused with smoky gray colour and sand from Snæfellsnes
Single edition sculpture
