G L A S S
Naturally occurring obsidian glass was used by Stone Age societies as it fractures along very sharp edges, making it ideal for cutting tools and weapons. Glassmaking dates back at least 6000 years, long before humans had discovered how to smelt iron. Archaeological evidence suggests that the first true synthetic glass was made in Lebanon and the coastal north Syria, Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt. The earliest known glass objects, of the mid-third millennium BC, were beads, perhaps initially created as accidental by-products of metalworking (slags) or during the production of faience, a pre-glass vitreous material made by a process similar to glazing.
M O M E N T U M
by Francesco Langer
For this series, I explored the city of Berlin to find inspiration for a new work. What I always appreciate in Berlin are the many parks and beautiful avenues with lots of trees.
So started to visit trees that are in places that I visited often in my childhood. Which are particularly old and imposing. Or had particularly striking structures and started playing around with them.
Sometimes I have to hesitate to leaves thinks how they are. It is easy to intervene and impose one's will on a thing. But I have the feeling that we loose a lot doing that. Some thinks need time to develop organically and questioning them to much sometimes end mostly having doubts. Go with the flow and let thinks go.
Finding the beauty in natural grown structures give me the opportunity to stop judging aesthetics or funktional aspects and concentrate on exploring my surroundings and focus on the process of glassmaking.
U N I T Y
by Francesco Langer
This glass piece I made from 3D scans of sandstone structures that I brought back from a short climbing trip in Spain. From this digital material I developed two positives that were positive and negative to each other and printed them form PLA. I made a silicone negative of both. Which allowed me to use leftover material to cast mold parts.The casted structures went into a frame, welded together from metal plates, got preheated and got blowed out with glass.
In 2021 I could have done anything and not liked it. I put so much pressure on myself to do something special, something great, something new, that I ended up paralyzed. I kept this work hidden for a long time, but than I realized that this piece of glass is a symbol for me to move on and not think too much about my own artistic work.
P R U N U S A V I U M
by Francesco Langer
This handmade glass vase resulted from a series of work that combines modern technologies with traditional craftsmanship.
The shape of an old bird cherry tree was 3d scanned on a trip to the Botanical Garden in Berlin. The scan was edited and scaled and then 3d printed. From this positive a multi-part mold was formed by hand before it got blown out with glass.
52°27'15.4 "N 13°18'25.8 "E
F R A G M E N T S
by Francesco Langer
I captured the unique structures of the Pastoruri glacier with the help of a 3D scanner during a 2 week expedition through the Andes mountains of Peru. Using a combination of digital technologies and traditional glassblowing techniques, I was able to archive these structures and convert them into lights.
Than only by illuminating the beauty and relevance of what is still there, but will soon no loger be, we can understand the power of our collective action and initiate change.
C A M B I O
by Francesco Langer
In the development of a human being, the most important changes take place invisibly through the decisions we make in the course of our lives and the events that are set in motion as a result. The insights gained from these changes shape our personality. This work deals with this change and attempts to give it an external form. Several identical wax blanks were exposed to different forces over an extended period of time and the resulting manifestation was captured in hand-blown glass. The result is a series of vessels of identical origin but different character.