The artist talks toDominique Corlettabout tuning into the elements, and her unique approach to working with glass
HEIRLOOMS OF THE FUTURE
As the rain comes down in sheets on a particularly sodden autumn day, it feels apt to be discussing water with glass artist Celia Dowson. Her softly coloured semi-functional beakers, vases and bowls, in a range of satiny finishes, are gaining a loyal following. She is preparing for her next exhibition, ‘Of Water’, a joint show with ceramicist Chloe Rosetta Bell at the Maud & Mabel Gallery in Hampstead, London.
This is not the first time that water has fed into Celia’s work, which is concerned with capturing the elements and atmospheres of the natural world. It was following a three-month residency in Taiwan during the rainy season that she first developed the hazy quality in her glassware that has become her trademark – the effect was inspired by the water-soaked mists that hang over the landscape.
For her London show, Celia is exploring translucency, reflection, changes in light and colour, and the perception of depth. ‘There’s also lots of movement in glass,’ she adds. ‘If you look closely, you’ll see how it’s been pulled into the mould: it has tracking and the paths it has followed as it’s melted into shape, and bubbles that have been captured. Like water, I see glass as a living, moving thing.’
There is something hypnotic about Celia’s glassware: in the gradients and intensities of colour; in the juxtaposition of polished and satin surface; in the tricks that reflection and transparency play on the eye, making it hard to distinguish the edge of the vessel from the space beyond it; while her pastel-toned, opaque pieces seem to glow with light.
Her talent in capturing these qualities within a satisfying, small domestic object has brought her plenty of attention. As well as being commissioned to create glassware ranges for a number of London’s top bars and restaurants, three of Celia’s works – an opaque pine green jug and two beakers – were purchased at this summer’s Collect art fair by the V&A museum for its permanent collection.
Celia has only been working in glass for five years and, surprisingly, has never trained in the medium. Her background is ceramics, which she still makes, although 70 per cent of her output these days is glass. She discovered glass by chance on the
