New Perspective, a monumental optical glass, mirror, and wood sculpture created by prominent glass artists Richard Jackson and Sally Fawkes, whose studio is in Stroud, will be sited at Glass Futures, St Helens, Merseyside, for the rest of the year.
Glass Futures is a not-for-profit membership organisation created by the glass industry for the future benefit of society. It connects the global glass industry with academia to demonstrate innovative technologies through research and development that will make glass and other materials zero carbon for a sustainable future, enabled by glass.
Glass Futures has a 165,000 square feet state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary glass melting facility, the Global Centre of Excellence in St Helens, which will be capable of producing up to 30 tonnes of glass per day in a specially designed and purpose-built experimental furnace.
New Perspective symbolically projects the vision of Glass Futures of expanding possibilities through inspiration, exploration, curiosity and imagination, paving the way to change for the better. For this reason, New Perspective was chosen to take centre stage in the reception atrium of Glass Futures.
The inception of New Perspective was an exhibition entitled ‘Reflection’ at Salisbury Cathedral in 2016. Reflection challenged the selected artists to respond to the context of the cathedral and its 900-year history.
Richard and Sally were inspired by:
• the technological advancements made at the time of building of Salisbury Cathedral which began in 1220
• the skill of the crafts people employed whose marks you can see and touch in the fabric of the building
• the cathedral’s place as a centre of inclusive reflection and its adaption to societal changes over the centuries.
Two glass columns, each marked with its own history and language are linked by a path of mirror, like a path of light. Reflections and refractions displace and multiply new images in new settings, showing new paths, new lines of sight and new points of view. A new perspective is opened out amongst the old.
Richard Jackson and Sally Fawkes are highly regarded, established British glass artists creating unique, exquisitely crafted glass art sculpture, from the intimate to monumental in scale. Both artists studied BA Hons 3-Dimensional Design in Glass, and since 2000 they have worked as professional artists from their studio in Stroud.
They exhibit internationally with leading galleries and work to commission. Their work is represented in collections globally, including the V&A museum, London, UK. Both artists are elected members of the Royal Society of Sculptors.
2023 saw a major joint exhibition of their glass sculptures entitled Inhale Exhale at the internationally acclaimed Musée du Verre François Décorchemont, France. New Perspective was a centre piece in this exhibition. A selection of smaller sculptures by the artists will also be displayed at Glass Futures.
