first light: rituals of glass and neon art

SHe Bends curatorial statement:

Light has profound symbolic significance across many spiritualities, cultures, and religions. In cosmology, "first light" refers to the earliest moment in the history of the universe, when the stars and galaxies were born and first began to shine. Taking this fundamental moment as the first in a multitude of meanings and contexts to follow, First Light: Rituals of Glass and Neon Art explores the pursuit of mastery in neon and glass craft as a form of prayer or devotional act that holds science, spirituality, and art in equal regard as noble explorations of the universe. 

As art forms that uniquely blend elemental science and creative expression, neon and glass offer an intimate understanding of light as a profound and transformative, alchemical force. Glass has the ability to move through many different material states and can change drastically in response to external factors like breath and heat. Likewise invisible noble gasses like neon, argon, and helium can become beacons of light when harnessed and energized within glass vessels. In this way, glass becomes an allegory for human experience––changing, evolving, containing––and just as light illuminates and gives life to the world, consciousness gives meaning to human existence. Through their work, the artists in First Light use glass and light to mirror the relationship between human physicality, consciousness, and emotion.

The works on view in the gallery offer a range of observations and questions about the natural and spiritual world: from reflecting on the awe-inspiring cosmos and activating the energy present in natural materials, to considering symbolic text and poetic ruminations on existence. Through existing and newly commissioned works, the nine artists in First Light consider how honing artistic skill in their craft can be a masters trade, a ritual practice, as well as a spiritual means to contemplate the mysteries of the universe, one's own understanding of reality, and the human condition. 

To work with these materials requires a level of courage and skill that has more in common with devotional and ritualistic practices than many artistic or vocational pursuits. The work demands an embodied effort that requires the practitioner to enter a state of oneness with themselves and perform specific actions in a rigid sequence. This exhibition aims to demystify the science and process behind glass and neon art while relishing the magic, connections, and mysteries that it can also unlock, thereby positioning discovery and wonder as complementary rather than oppositional values. 

The exhibition features the work of Angelina Almukhametova, Jessica Krichelle, Kacie Lees, Stephanie Sara Lifshutz, Mollie McKinley, Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez, Kamila Mróz, Meryl Pataky, and Lily Reeves.