GLASS: art design architecture

Overview

We see through it, drink out of it, wear it as jewellery, make part of our houses of it, rub our fingers against it all day on our phones, and place interesting items made from it around our homes. We're talking about glass, the often transfixing, often transparent substance that combines art, design and architecture. Hey, that'd be a good name for an exhibition dedicated to it, wouldn't it?

Taking over the QUT Art Museum from November 19 to March 5, GLASS: art design architecture combines the work of practitioners in each field to demonstrate the many different uses for this versatile material. If you've ever wondered about current creative practices in the glass arena, or contemplated humanity's relationship to it, this showcase of 23 projects will indulge those thoughts and ponderings.

And, to be honest, finding yourself thinking about glass is perfectly understandable. We're not only surrounded by it in our 21st century lives, but archaeologists have found evidence that volcanic glass was used by early humans to make spear tips, and other data shows that we've been working with it  since 3,500 BC.

Image: Wendy Fairclough, Tribute 2014, cast lead crystal, wooden ironing board. Photo: Grant Hancock.