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(orchestral music)
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The Sparkling Company is a broad,
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sweeping survey of the many meanings, innovations,
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and functions of glass in Britain during the 1700s.
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And its aim is really to show what it meant to be modern
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at that time through a lens of glass.
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We wanted to use neon to convey the sense of modernity
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of the 1700s,
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the self-conscious awareness of modernity
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that people felt at that time.
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It was a really happy coincidence
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that Matthew was speaking at the seminar
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organised in 2019, the year of New Glass Now,
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and he introduced FagSigns
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which was just starting up at the time.
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And at that moment I was thinking about
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camp in the 18th century,
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and it felt like a really good way to make the connection
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to the modernity that I wanted to conjure up,
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but also to the notion of camp
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and serving the queer community
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in the way that FagSigns does,
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and supporting them and giving a platform.
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What was exciting to me about working with FagSigns
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is that it represented a sector of the industry
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that wasn't really represented at this stage.
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A lot of neon at this point until the last,
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like maybe 7 to 10 years,
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was very relegated to a commercial industry.
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So with that, when the project with Corning Museum came up,
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it was really exciting to work on a project
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that was based in reframing glass
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as something that was camp,
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because honestly that's how I think of it a lot of the time
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is super fragile.
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You're kind of breathing into the object you're creating
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and imbuing a lot of your own person into it.
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The letter A covers all of the more basic bends
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and is a good warmup letter.
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It covers the right angle, the double back,
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and the dropdown bend all in one letter.
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If you master just three bends,
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you can do like half the alphabet.
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The first step in bending A will be measuring the glass.
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I'll usually, I'll cut the glass first in half
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and then that'll leave me with a more manageable length.
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Use my soapstone, which you use to mark glass
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'cause it's heat resistant and it's good at mark making.
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I'll use my cork to close the system
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when I have my blow hose attached
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because this is what I use to put air into the tube
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because once you heat glass up and bend it, it collapses,
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and you don't want that to be
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the permanent state of your letter.
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So you put air back into reform it.
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When you're heating up the glass,
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the steps are heat, bend and then blow.
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(orchestral music)
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What goes into neon to make it light up
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is one of two gases usually, which is argonne or neon.
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Neon is sort of a misnomer.
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Most signs you see that are any colour other than red
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will be filled with argonne
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and then a bead of liquid mercury,
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which then vaporises when it's under heat
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to mix with the gas to react with the phosphor,
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which is the white or yellow coating on the clear glass
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to make a colour.
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We've introduced the neon sign in an immersive entry point
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to the exhibition where we evoke Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens,
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which was London's hottest night spot.
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You could have dinner outside, you could watch fireworks,
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you could see contemporary art,
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you could listen to the latest music,
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you could have sex in bushes,
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you could do all the things
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that we in the 21st century would recognise as being fun.
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But it was really famous for its lighting, for its lanterns.
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It had thousands of glass lanterns suspended from trees,
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which could all be lit in an instant
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because they were connected by a single fuse
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soaked in a flammable liquid.
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So at a certain point in the evening,
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somebody would go out with a lit taper,
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touch one end of the fuse,
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and all the lights would sparkle on.
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So that felt like a good thing to riff off.
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And neon I think is a great contemporary equivalent to that.
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It's urban, it's eye catching, it's innovative and seedy.
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All the things that I kind of wanted to conjure up
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for Vauxhall
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and for this sense of modernity in Britain at that time.
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Neon is just sort of starting to reach
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the zeitgeist of fine art.
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And with this exhibit it's really
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sort of solidifying that place in many ways.
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Corning is a huge museum,
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very well respected around the world for glass as a medium.
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And I think neon is often left on a separate table
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to the rest of glass.
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So for it to be included in such a traditional
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survey of the medium is really exciting.
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It definitely is elevating it from
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the commercial into the art,
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which is, I think right, right at this point.
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In Sparkling Company: Glass and the Costs of Social Life
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in Britain During the 1700s opened on May 22nd
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and will run through to January 2nd, 2022.
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(orchestral music)