An expose of works made at Kosta Glassworks as a holder of the Ulrica Hydman Vallien Grant 2022.
Crystal evokes precision and clarity, to the extent that a common turn of phrase, "crystal clear", intuitively means something is unambiguous and easily understood. In contrast, Simon Klenell uses cut crystal, a traditional specialty of Sweden, to create work that is confoundingly unusual and mysterious. The artist’s signature technique begins with the traditional, if exaggerated, cutting of deep and bold patterns on crisp geometric shapes, this becomes the raw material for the second step; reheating the cut elements to distort and join them, often with globs of molten glass. Prodding at convention while embracing tradition is Simon’s central strategy, and in 'Coloring a Dream' he takes his task into new territory, with the addition of layers of color, obliterating what remains of traditional associations with the material and technique.
Simon's new body of work was created in partnership with the most renowned names in Swedish glass, Orrefors Kosta Boda. Inspired by this association, Simon has cunningly referenced and combined the two techniques most closely connected to the company’s illustrious history; the color overlay and cut crystal. At the heart of this project is a probing of, and a challenge to conventional notions of ‘purity’ and by extension, Swedish identity itself.
In tradition-bound Swedish glass, overlays and cutting are rarely combined, and for this very reason, they are at the heart of the work in "Coloring A Dream". The overlay, which can be executed in several ways (including the classic 'Swedish Overlay'), is a procedure for layering different colors of hot blown glass and is often used at Kosta to create special color effects. By contrast, cut crystal, of which Orrefors and Kosta are both noteworthy historical leaders, is traditionally colorless in order to capture light effect and maximize sparkle. Simon’s new vessels have opaque or translucent outer layers over richly colored transparent inner cores that are revealed only by deep cutting of an all-over graphic grid pattern that delineates and contours the forms with the relentlessly rational effect that only a grid may achieve. Gone is Simon’s typical interpretation of elaborate traditional cut glass patterns whose historical goal was to sparkle in ostentatious display. Instead of using cutting to distract and embellish, the goal of Simon’s grid is to describe and lay bare the form. This visual plotting of the form draws attention to it and begs the questions 'how' and 'why' it is the shape it is.
As a super-cooled liquid, glass has no 'natural' or inherent form, left to its own devices it describes the location gravity brought it to at the moment it cooled. The shape of glass is thus always a record of time and process – and it is a temporary one that may be reheated and reshaped. The shaping of glass is a choreography of sorts, a dance that requires sustained speed and coordinated dexterity to defy gravity’s pull. These criteria describe a framework, or rules, that determine what may be made and how. In this manner, it is a metaphor for society, a microcosm of collaborative social action.
To maintain focus on form as an outcome of processes, Simon has restricted the shapes he uses to the most classical and fundamental; the square and round cylinder, the disk, and the cuboid. Individually, these basic forms are easily comprehended, but combined, their interaction creates complexity and exponential possibilities. To avoid unnecessary compositional elaborations, Simon relies on a process to constrain and translate his work; he draws each piece crudely on the computer, shuffling and scaling basic shapes on the screen. This approach is very different from his typical procedure, in fact, it is the greatest innovation in this new work.
