Inchiostri

Produced in Murano, in collaboration with the Maestro glassblower Simone Cenedese, each vase is composed of four elements: two blocks of cast glass (in four different sizes and two different thicknesses--6 or 7 centimeters), a blown glass tube (in two different heights), and a small shallow blown glass dish that can be stacked on top of the tube. Each element is of a different shade, picked from an eleven-color palette. From the almost infinite number of possible permutations that these basic forms allow for, Ronan Bouroullec selected twenty unique compositions. Through them, he continues the exploration of themes that are essential to his work. Chiefly, the question of assemblage: in this case, joining things together without fasteners, simply by contact, through an essentially reversible process. Also, the issue of balance: the arrangement of empty space and solid shapes, of cast and blown glass, of fragile objects inserted in sturdy ones. And the notion of paradox: the possibility of elevation being located in the very weight of things, the effect of verticality through horizontality, and luminosity achieved through darkness--as evidenced by the name of the vases, Inchiostri, the Italian word for "inks".