The Caldera kiln interior, the digital display, and the video screen glow in the dark.
01/27/2015
Artists use Paragon kilns to make dazzling copper enameling, glass fusing, and pottery. In 2012, Matthew Day Perez did the opposite--he created art from the kiln itself.
A Paragon Caldera, with the top removed to show a glowing orange interior, was part of a display called “Grow” at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space in southeastern Australia.
A transparent sheet of quartz helped to hold the heat within the kiln, where a blob of incandescent glass glowed orange within a crucible. The kiln’s heating elements pulsed from yellow to a dull red as the controller maintained the proper temperature.
Next to the Caldera, a video screen showed collapsed and melted transparent glass bottles, cups, and vases rise up to take their original shape. Bent wine glass stems straightened again as if they were flowers caught in time-lapse video. Except for glass images on the video screen, the glow of kiln’s firing chamber, and the red blinking digital controller keypad, the display room was dark.
“Grow” was part of Perez’s research as a Fulbright Fellow.
Reflections on the surrounding glass panels add surrealism to the display.
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