Barbara Nanning - Moving stillness

Tradition and experiment

In addition to the traditional techniques that form the basis of her artistic practice, experimentation plays a key role in Nanning's work. In all of her work, she tries to find new ways to capture colour and light in the glass. This also applies for her new series Chimaera, a co-production with the Czech grinder Aleš Zverina, in which she works with anna green glass. Under ultra-violet light, this green coloured glass has a fluorescent effect in the dark. The sawn and cut facets in the anna green glass create numerous optical effects and add depth to the work. For her latest series Byzantium, Nanning experiments with gilded glass threads that she melts into patterns inspired by Byzantine culture.

Moving Stillness

Nanning always starts from a circle, a point of stillness, which she then develops further in the liquid glass. This results in all kinds of organic forms, based on crystals, plants and micro-organisms. She tries to capture the movement of nature and bring it to a standstill; a moment in time captured in a glass object.