Celestial bodies: Flavie Audi traps iridescent colours in geological glass forms

French-Lebanese artist Flavie Audi's interest in glass developed when she was studying architecture in London. She became frustrated by the unimaginative way glass was often used – as a flat, stolid material. 'I was keen to manipulate glass in a sensual way, to give it humanity,' she explains. 'When working in architecture, you always have a client and a brief, so I thought the best way to explore this was to move away from architecture and into art.'
Since switching disciplines, Audi has been dubbed a 'glass artist'; which, despite her love of the material, is limiting. She also produces digital and analogue photography, film and multimedia art, as a new exhibition at Tristan Hoare gallery in London displays. Split into two rooms, 'Cell-(estial)' pinpoints the moment virtual and physical worlds meet, through the interaction between Audi's weighty blown-glass sculptures and her ethereal, airy video installations.
Despite the difference in mediums, the exhibition is united by Audi's dazzling, otherwordly aesthetic. There's an alien quality to each work. It's difficult to know how each piece was made, or what it's even made from. 'Everyone always wants to touch my works,' she says. 'I encourage this.'
'Fluid Rock 19'. © Flavie Audi. Courtesy of Tristan Hoare
You half expect the glass works to be soft and rubbery rather than smooth and glazed. The bubble-like textures are created through a variety of innovative glass-blowing techniques that Audi is keeping close to her chest. Though she does tell us, 'I like to misuse or invent new steps in the glass blowing process. It's like making my own recipes.'
All we know is that these mysterious recipes mix together synthetic elements with organic ones, reflecting glass' changing use from a purely physical, architectural object to an interactive one. Today, glass is something that we hold in our hands and interact with on a daily basis through our phones and devices. It is no longer a one-dimensional material; rather, it is an experiential, virtual one, beautifully captured here by Audi's curiously modern forms.
Left, Fluid Rock, 2016; and Gemscape 1, 2016. Photography: Ben Westoby. Right, Fluid Rock 16.
Cloudscape 8, 2016.
INFORMATION
’Cell-(estial)’ is on view until 9 January 2017. For more information, visit the Tristan Hoare
ADDRESS
Tristan Hoare
Six Fitzroy Square
London W1T 5HJ
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Elly Parsons is the Digital Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees Wallpaper.com and its social platforms. She has been with the brand since 2015 in various roles, spending time as digital writer – specialising in art, technology and contemporary culture – and as deputy digital editor. She was shortlisted for a PPA Award in 2017, has written extensively for many publications, and has contributed to three books. She is a guest lecturer in digital journalism at Goldsmiths University, London, where she also holds a masters degree in creative writing. Now, her main areas of expertise include content strategy, audience engagement, and social media.
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