Ida Wieth

Ida Wieth’s works – Both Sides Now – relate to the composite and eclectic elements within things – how there is always another side and different perceptions to the existing one. Her sculptures – Both Sides Now – are made from hot-pulled glass canes. The hollow glass “straight lines” are broken up into smaller units, bundled and melted together to become a new assembled form. The unity of structural layers, are then paired with another side of ceramics. Subsequently, the two sides are twisted together with thin copper wire. The wire appears in both its fired and unfired form. This emphasises the variability of perception seized from processed and assembled materials. The surface and textural contrast is highlighted through a clear grasp of color and the tactile sensation that arises in the meeting of different materials. Thus, each side possesses different qualities and expressions, they remain closely interconnected in a mirroring effect that is highlighted through tangible material connections.

Ida notes about her work: “Working with glass as my point of departure, I aim to grasp and push the potential of this versatile and enthralling material in a direction, that both emphasises and challenges the perception of it. In my work, I am interested in discovering and unveiling new possibilities within different qualities of materials – together and in relation to each other.”

The conceptual idea springs from both the found and made – and from persistent observations of seeing and valuing things from more than one perspective. Ida Wieth’s work thus involves constructing and deconstructing, adding and subtracting, bending and turning around and upside down – before eventually bringing it all together in a concrete manifestation of the relationship.

Ida Wieth was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1983. She is an educated glassblower from the Kosta Glass School in Sweden, and in 2009 she graduated as Master of Fine Art in glass from the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland, UK. She works with glass and ceramics – and occasionally wood, concrete and metals – to bring forth aesthetic innovations. Ida Wieth combines the artistically poetical, with the tangible knowledge of materials and techniques of the artisan, in a highly expressive and emotional manner.

Ida Wieth’s work is part of the permanent collection at the Designmuseum and Hempel Glass Museum, Denmark as well at The Notojima Glass Art Museum in Japan. She has been awarded several prizes for her work, which has been shown in Scandinavia, Europe, Russia, Japan and now for the first time in USA through J. Lohmann Gallery.