Discarded glass gets an artistic makeover

Most people make glass from a mixture of silica, lime, soda, borax, etc, which are different components of soil. While doing a residency programme at Pittsburgh Glass Centre in the US, glass sculptor Sisir Sahana decided to explore the possibilities of medium of glass.

“Though glass is a beautiful medium, many artists don’t explore its possibilities due to various reasons. After working with glass, I realised that it can be used as a material to express an artist’s ideas, philosophies, and concerns about human beings and society at large. The process of making glass is elaborate and intricate. I thought why don’t we treat the material and create beautiful sculptures. So, during my residency programme in the US, I created a glass sculpture series called A dialogue with soil,” says glass sculptor Sisir Sahana.The 56-year-old will be exhibiting 10 of his artworks at Forum Art Gallery from February 8 onwards. Sisir, who is known for his unique style of sculpting, has been working with the concept of connecting our roots to nature. “One must examine the life cycle of a soil that has breathed through thousands of seasons. Some theorise they are just particles of nature crystallised in the geological cycle. To me, this creative journey is not just an excavation of a material world but an excavation of my roots and my very being in nature,” muses the professor of Ceramics & Glass at the Department of Design in Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University, Shantiniketan.

“Glass is a tough medium to work with and it is still uncommon in Indian art fraternity. Some say the glass is like a quarrelsome wife! It can be brittle, crystalline/non crystalline, fragile, transparent/translucent but carries my everyday correspondences with nature. The artist needs to have a good infrastructure and should have scientific and technical knowledge about the process of glassmaking. Then, it will be easy for him/her to mould the material and create beautiful artworks,” he adds.

Rather than sourcing new materials, Sisir likes to engage with objects thrown away by other artists/artisans. “A lot of waste is generated while creating a glass artwork or a sculpture and most of them end up in a dustbin. I prefer to use those materials, remould it and develop a new piece. I recreate a glass sculpture by incorporating those discarded glass pieces by other artists and discarded roots, seeds, flowers, leaves and shells,” Sisir explains.

Like any other glass sculptor, he too creates a work by moulding, fusing, casting and polishing glass. “It will take 15-20 days’ time to finish one sculpture. During this time, glass might also break making us restart the entire process. One needs to have a lot of patience to ‘control’ the glass. Also, the artist should be careful while handling the glass material,” he remarks.