Comprised of some five hundred pieces of hand-blown glass, Still Life with Metal Pitcher is an awe-inspiring artistic performance that spurs the imagination. At first glance, the mysterious assemblage of objects on the table—towering vessels, glass fruits, vegetables and animals—suggest the trophies of an eccentric and obsessive collector, or the spoils amassed by a victorious conqueror. But as we begin to look more closely, the amazing materiality of this scene transforms into something more unsettling.
Many of the individual pieces of glass seem to be melted, deformed or broken. Even the intact forms have a strangely frozen quality. Dead animals and pieces of meat stand among the more pleasurable objects on the table. These jarring details lend an aura of decay to the entire installation. The whole seems to be beginning to disintegrate at the same time it is a scene of great abundance and bounty. In this way, Still Life with Metal Pitcher suggests the conflicted materiality of a culture abandoned at its pinnacle.
Beth Lipman is the coordinator of the artist-in-residence program at the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan. She started blowing glass as a child at summer camp.