Glasstress: White Heat White Light

James Putnam was co-curator of ‘Glasstress: White Light White Heat’, with Adriano Berengo, Director of Berengo Studio a collaborative event for the 55th Venice Biennale 2013, staged on two sites in Venice at the Palazzo Franchetti, Venice and the Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art and Glass, Murano. A total of 63 international artists were invited to respond to Putnam’s themes of light and heat, both fundamental to glass making - light is integral to our perception of glass while heat is required to shape it. His curatorial role included developing new commissioned works in collaboration with Berengo Studio where the glass works were made and commissioning two artist performances. His objective was to build upon previous ‘Glasstress’ exhibitions that featured only Fine Artists, the first of which was at the Venice Bienniale in 2009, to develop a curatorial concept that encompassed works to include fine art, fashion, performance and installation. Two notable examples were Cai Guo-Qiang’s Full body Scan; ‘Next!’ an installation of mannequins in suicide jackets forged in glass and a performance and Ron Arad’s Last Train, an interactive drawing installation incorporating new technology. Putnam’s research involved examining the glass blowing/moulding techniques used by the Venetian artisans and necessitated the study of glass making history and the Wallace Collection’s display of historic Venetian glass. This included research in specialist libraries, museums, archives, and also researching modern and contemporary artists’ use and attitude towards glass. A fully illustrated publication accompanied the project, including an essay by Putnam with an extract from the essay featured in the official Biennale catalogue. The exhibition was reconstituted at two venues in London, The Wallace Collection & The Fashion Space Gallery, University of the Arts, London.

• http://www.glasstress.org/event_2013/12
• http://www.wallacecollection.org/collect...