Josiah McElheny

When I was poking around for an artist that interested me, I'll admit Josiah McElheny didn't really catch my interest at first. The art of glassblowing was something I was unfamiliar with, something I had ignorantly confined to the category of "decorative" art. However, hearing Josiah McElheny talk about the nature of his work, the rich history of glassblowing and the

uniqueness of the medium, I began to gain a new appreciation for something I had mistakenly written off as "craft" rather than "art."

McElhney describes the history of glassblowing as an "oral tradition" handed down from generation to generation. He himself spent years studying in Europe as an apprentice under several master craftsmen. The art of glassblowing itself requires an in-depth knowledge of the science and technical skill behind creating objects, something that makes glassblowing a remote art form to many artists. This appreciation for the difficulty and intricacy of his skill gives McElhney a unique perspective on his artwork. He describes the act of creating a piece, the variation between having an idea and actually molding it into glass. It is fascinating to hear him describe the process, for while he is in complete control of the various rods and furnaces he uses to mold the glass, he can never once put his hands on and actually touch the piece until it is completely finished. This creates a certain barrier between the artist and their piece that, while some would find frustrating, gives the piece itself a certain life of its own. Indeed, McElhney says that he never truly can never call his pieces his own until he can handle them in their finished state, "get to know them" so to speak.

One of the concepts McElhney likes to deal with is the idea of reflection, especially in the context of looking at art. Many of his pieces consist of polished mirror statures that are placed directly in a gallery, such as his "Total Reflective Abstraction" (2003):

Here, by having the viewer look at the piece, a series of reflective statues, McElhney is playing with the very idea of looking at art itself. As viewers, we come with unique biases and experiences that we instinctively project onto the art we view to gain our own interpretation. Here the viewer literally sees him or herself reflected in the mirror, becoming a part of the artwork itself. It is an interesting statement of the relationship between the artist and his or her viewer, for at the same time McElhney is trying to express his own unique ideas to the

viewer. We are see our own reflections, but we see them how McElhney wants us to see them.

On the other end of the spectrum, McElhney also explores the concept of utopia, infitiey, and perfection. He uses mirrored objects, but in a very different way than "Total Relative Abstraction." Rather than having the reflection of the viewer, he attempts to remove all indications of his pieces' surroundings. See "Modernity Circa 1962, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely":

Here is a kind of objectified perfection, looked upon through a two-way mirror so that all elements of human interference are removed. It might be taken as a comment on the nature of utopia that this kind of perfection can only exist in model form, looked upon through a glass barrier that cuts it off from the outside world. Perhaps this emphasizes the fact that divine concepts such as utopia and infinity are forever out of our reach as the human viewer.