Art Nouveau marked a turning point in the history of glass at the end of the 19th century.e century. Materials gradually detached themselves from their utilitarian functions to assert themselves as a medium for creation. This evolution is embodied in particular in the works of Émile Gallé and François-Eugène Rousseau, where the object becomes an artist's piece. This is reflected in this new generation of glass artists who consider glass not simply as a material, but as an extension of gesture and the body. Report.
Sculpting light
Ludivine Loursel lets her creativity flow onto a blank sheet of paper before allowing the glass to write the rest in her hands. The breath from her mouth then extends the gesture. Beyond experimenting with forms, the artist plays with color, as in the paintings of her "Mètis" collection, where she explores the opacity of the material and the use of bronze frames that, like a shadow box, illuminate the piece. "For others, I explored different colors and textures, researching transparency and undulation. I wanted to work with the wall so that natural light could pass through the artwork and achieve a more framed, almost encircled effect. This also allowed me, in some pieces, to integrate light into the very fabric of the material ," explains Ludivine Loursel.
© Marion Saupin
The craftswoman also evokes a form of intimacy between glass and the body, essential to the creation of her first pieces. This relationship allows her to maintain an instinctive gesture in her practice, also present in her work with brass.
© Ludivine Loursel Metis
Shape memory
It all began with the observation of a drop of ink falling into water. Youngho Park was fascinated by the inverted toroidal shape created by gravity and by the way the pigment eventually settled at the bottom of the glass. “This process reminded me of memory. To remember something, we repeat it over and over, but over time, the memory gradually fades. […] I wanted to capture this process of memorization and recall through glass ,” Park explains. The glass artist then began creating rotating toroidal structures which, through their colors and densities, “symbolize how memories evolve, overlap, fade, and reappear over time .” A way of revealing the invisible process of memory that everyone experiences.
Through these borosilicate glass filaments, which interlock like links and are welded together as if they were metal, Park composes forms imbued with an impression of continuous movement, creating connections that extend the gesture of the hand. It was by confronting the material's resistance to thermal shock that the artisan came to imagine these rounded forms. However, it took him several years of experimentation to achieve this result. "I gradually refined techniques that allowed me to create more natural and organic surfaces. This process eventually evolved into a personal visual language," concludes Youngho Park.
Matter in flux
For Justine Ménard, borosilicate glass transcends the status of a mere material, becoming an outlet for expression. From her Barcelona studio, she works the material with an almost surgical precision, guided by the flame, her primary tool. To achieve this, she employs the flame-working technique, which she discovered during her jewelry studies at the Haute École de Joaillerie in Paris. A self-taught glass artist, she breaks free from academic conventions, allowing the material to respond to the breath and gesture of her hand. The result is sculptural jewelry where the relationship to the body is central, as exemplified by her "Naiad" collection, which echoes the Greek myth of the aquatic nymphs who dwell in fresh waters.
In her artistic exploration, Ménard cultivates an imagination nourished by nature, which she translates through forms reminiscent of seashells and fossilized bones. Her glass pieces depict a figure of femininity that is not delicate, but powerful. Glass becomes a material embodying the body, simultaneously a second skin and armor. Her "table jewelry," as she calls it, is not merely functional, but occupies space like small talismans one could not part with. This is exemplified by her "Ondine" collection, composed of blown glass pieces ranging from bowls to vases, where the gesture unfolds in space: spirals becoming containers, suspended curves transformed into functional objects.
The practices of Ludivine Loursel, Youngho Park, and Justine Ménard all demonstrate a shared desire: to make glass a language. Each, in their own way, inscribes through it a memory, an emotion, or an intimate relationship.
