HE LEARNED FROM MASTER GLASS BLOWERS, NOW HE IS ON AN UNSTOPPABLE TRAJECTORY.
INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN SWANZ, #4 ON OUR LIST OF 25 RECOMMENDED ARTISTS FOR 2019.
Tell us about yourself and background.
I committed to craft as a way of life 20 years ago. My creative impulse was sparked by the material problem solving I encountered during high school ceramics. The subjective nature of art was much more nuanced and elusive than the objective concrete logic of algebra and calculus, and I was inspired to bypass scholarships in engineering to double major in studio art and philosophy. After visiting a professor’s house where nearly everything was handmade, I knew that was how I would live the rest of my life- immersed in a handmade world. I devoted myself to the studio, to seek great teachers, and exhaust the learning curve. All the while I was engaged in conversations with great artists, past and present. During my twenties I apprenticed with two master glassblowers in Europe and became a voice in the dialogue of glass. Now I’m part of history!
Tell us about your work.
I use glass as a medium to investigate, interpret and express my relationship to life. My work is driven by process and material, and navigated by ideas. I have developed two main bodies of work: Tropical Abstract and Vibrant Matter. The blown glass sculptures of TA are inspired by Hawaii’s ocean, flora and fauna crafted using traditional Italian and Scandinavian glass techniques filtered through my personal aesthetic lens. The conceptual work of VM explores parallels in the energetic and social nature of materials and humans by investigating state change and energy transfer through the manipulation of molten glass, digital media, performance, and architectural installations. I want my sculpture to have an anthropomorphic quality, a reference to being embodied that hooks the viewer to experiencing the materiality of their body more deeply.
What makes your work and approach unique?
Two things stand out- one is that I strongly identify as both a glass blower and as an artist, and two is my personal relationship to embodiment. It’s an honor to be a torchbearer of a historical glass blowing tradition that is over 2000 years old, and a contemporary artist working with glass to create abstract sculpture, installations and experiences. I studied with masters to learn technique so that I can more easily become absorbed in the material and process. I experience my body as a tool, as an instrument, as material. I explore my body thoroughly, through intense physical practices and focused reflective stillness. I do not want to experience my skin as the limit to limitlessness.
"I use glass as a medium to investigate, interpret and express my relationship to life. My work is driven by process and material, and navigated by ideas."
What is integral to your work as an artist?
Spectrum and depth. discipline and spontaneity- these qualities are integral to my work. Spectrum is the curiosity, the complexity, the simultaneity, the wonder. Depth is the focus, the refinement, the absorption, the will. Discipline is the craft, the tradition, the form, the technique. Spontaneity is the art, the inspiration, the formless, the poetry.
What themes do you pursue?
Embodiment, Alchemy, Paradox, and Ecstasy I experience my body as a tool, as an instrument, as material. I also witness society through a material lens. I often wonder how human’s relationships to Nature, self and other might be altered if there was a greater awareness about our individual and social materiality. I like to ask questions about how and why things comingle, what energies brings two things together, pushes them apart, facilitates the transformation of one thing or more into another. These alchemical questions lead to studio experiments exploring the socio-material qualities and potentialities in glass that result in abstract sculptures. I believe that abstract art has the potential for insight transmissions than can be imprinted onto an individual that transcends words.
Why is your work a good investment?
My work is a good investment because it has a unique potential to make you a better you. I believe art’s purpose it to alter one’s experience of reality, to support individuals becoming their best, and to engage conversations from a unique perspective. Art is not something to be purchased for financial gain. That is superficial and boring. The reality is we are here on Earth for a very short time, and one should surround their self with things that have an impact upon them to inform, influence and connect one with a greater sense of self to humanity and creation. My work is a good investment because it has a unique potential to make you a better you. My sculpture is a manifestation of my commitment to glass, craft, creativity, consciousness, ecstasy, and community. I am here to make things that make a difference.
What has been a seminal experience?
I turned 25 working in Paris, France for the iconic glass duo Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg, It was year of total devotion to them as their apprentice. I was able to steep in their momentum and magic that had been cultivated over 20 plus years of working together, constantly pushing the their edge and the boundaries of contemporary glass. It was during this season of my life that I was ingrained with the highest of standards, a tireless work ethic, and an insatiable desire to make spectacular objects.
"I often wonder how human’s relationships to Nature, self and other might be altered if there was a greater awareness about our individual and social materiality."
Tell us about some of your achievements.
Last Summer I had work in my first major museum exhibition Raw Design at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, curated by Glenn Adamson the former director of MAD in NYC. The exhibition was “an exploration of contemporary design as a material intervention, demonstrating that palpable physicality is a creative force.” The institution chose an image of one of my sculptures for their advertisement, resulting in building size posters of my sculpture in the streets of SF. I recently completed my first international commission north of Barcelona. For the past two years I’ve had the most work accepted in the largest state wide juried exhibition in Hawaii, and both years the State Foundation of HI has acquired a sculpture of mine. This year I also received the Best of Show award.
What are your sources of inspiration?
Nothing is out of bounds as inspiration. Again, I want spectrum and depth. If I had to distill it into parts I would say my inspiration is sourced roughly in equal parts from observation of Nature (including society and self), reflection on relationships, the act of making, and a desire for refined beauty. It’s a cyclical relationship in which curiosity inspired observation translates into material explorations that are perpetuated by more curiosity and the challenge of refinement. Apparently it is endless. I have never found my self without inspiration, simply without the time, energy and materials to constantly make.
What art do you most identify with?
Modern sculpture, specifically abstract art and process art.
Name three artists you’d like to be compared to.
Only three?! Constatine Brancusi, Lydia Bengalis, Eve Hesse... My second three would be Olafur Eliason, Livio Seguso and Anish Kapoor.
“My work is a good investment because it has a unique potential to make you a better you."
What are you passionate about?
The embodied experience. I am a hedonist! I want to taste every flavor of life. I want to feel the subtle and the sublime.
I’m willing to work harder or surrender, which ever is necessary to feel the most alive, to touch ecstasy in that fleeting moment. Making art is a constant and dynamic reference point in my life that allows me to track my ideas of experience as they evolve, or dissolve.
Tell us the back-story of some of your projects.
The Constrictions are part of my Vibrant Matter series, a body of abstract glass sculptures utilizing molten glass as an investigate entry into the reciprocal overlap between society and the material world. Social observation of ‘socio- material’ behaviors assists me in framing studio experiments to create unusual and unexpected abstract sculptures in glass.
Some ideas find expression in both sculpture and performance, as with the Constrictions. I was interested in exploring the relationship between the experiences of movement/expansion simultaneously with that of restriction/ constriction.
This resulted in both glass studio experiments to make sculpture as well as a performance involving my body and an 80’ piece of square rubber. My personal exploration of the material dynamic deepened my connection to and understanding the sculptural process.
Share with us your upcoming projects.
There is a lot on deck! I am participating in the iBiennale in Honolulu this March with both a performance and an installation. I’m in a group show at a major craft gallery in the Southeast in May, making arrangements for two residencies at the end of 2019, and I’m in a dialogue with the European Cultural Centre along with other institutions to organize a ‘tour’ of Europe for 2020. I'm also working on two commercial projects in Hawaii, one with the Four Seasons on Maui and another with the Sheraton Waikiki on Oahu.
"I want my art to elicit ecstasy, a momentary lapse of absorption in the pleasure of being alive here and now."
Professionally, what is your goal?
I am an artist. I do not think of it as a profession, rather a path. My life goal is to continue making art from a place of authentic inspiration as a means to evolve the connection to self and to all things. I want to be a contributing voice to historic dialogue of both glass and contemporary art. I want to enjoy being alive.
Tell about where you are based.
I’ve lived in Hawaii for the past 8 years. It is truly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Hawaii is equally influential on my series Tropical Abstract as it is Vibrant Matter, whether I’m swimming with the fish, hiking in the jungle, or exploring the lava flow. It is a radical environment that is ceaselessly inspiring. Last week I was playing/ practicing between the ocean and a mountain, with a rainbow in front of me, the sun behind me, and wind surrounding me. It’s magical.
How do you feel about art and its role in the world today.
I believe art is crucial for the wellness of individuals and humanity. At a minimum art serves as a tool to foster connection.
A greater function of art is transformation. I believe art can be an antidote for the experience of disconnection people experience from self, from society, from history, from possibility, from purpose. The subjective nature of art undermines all ideas of hierarchy. Everything truly becomes relative and each individual’s experience and expression is valued.
How do you want your art to affect the viewer/world?
I want my art to elicit ecstasy, a momentary lapse of absorption in the pleasure of being alive here and now. I want my art to provoke new perspectives about materiality, relationships, and embodiment. I want my art to be a positive influence on individuals becoming the best they can be. I want my art to have an anthropomorphic hook, a reference to being embodied that gives the viewer an opportunity to experience the materiality of their body more deeply.
Website: jonathanswanz.com
| PDF of the Interview in DESTIG Magazine |