Abstract

Solo exhibition at SODA Istanbul, consisting of glass artworks inspired by the urban edifice and the encyclopaedia. Innovative print and glass cutting processes were developed in the fabrication of these works.

An international gallery solo exhibition, Books and Buildings combines inspirations from Northeast England social history and the urban edifice with new fabrication methods in printed, cut and kilnformed glass. Ethnic contexts are recorded through the a ‘library’ of book-like forms. Encyclopaedia, a series of polished glass blocks with embedded contain layered, screenprinted photographs, scientific diagrams, and handwritten text. Patterns inspired by old book covers and Victorian wallpaper printed in transparent glass form a backdrop to narrative and interplay amongst the images. The architectural façade is used as form of portrait reflecting the urban experience. Estate is a wall-based glass artwork consisting of six stories and 60 window-shaped spaces embedded with found portraits of Northeast England locals. This work uses a technique of cutting and rotating the portraits to be viewed from an angle. Centre, a façade modelled on a historically contested high-rise building in London, is a large-scale cut and assembled glass sculpture consisting of over 4000 unique parts. The innovative process behind the work is the use of waterjet cutting on kilnformed glass to create low relief surfaces, fused together using precisely controlled kiln firing. The exhibition opened at contemporary art and design space SODA Istanbul and subsequently shown at Ken Saunders Gallery, Chicago during the SOFA decorative arts fair. The Encyclopaedia artworks were also featured in Glass and Clay, an international exchange exhibition between cultural partners in Washington DC and Sunderland, UK. The works were also included in Illuminations at Bede’s World Museum, Jarrow, to provide a contemporary angle to art in glass and ceramics as a counterpoint to the showing of the Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham. Books and Buildings was critically reviewed in Glass Quarterly. For this work, Sarmiento was also given an honorary diploma in the Jutta Cuny Franz Memorial Award competition for glass art.