The New Baroque | Elliot Walker introduces his most recent arrivals to the gallery

"The golden age of glassmaking ran right alongside the golden age of still life painting, during the 15th to the 17th centuries. Stunning and rare examples of Venetian opulence and Bohemian High Baroque glassware were often used as examples of luxury and decadence within Dutch masterworks. Depicting glass with oil paint required a high level of skill due to its transparency, refractive index, and its ability to reflect textures & the colours surrounding it. Creating my sculptures requires the same consideration of composition, contrast, and use of light, but I use glass as both the medium and the canvas."


Total Irreverence in Black
Unique wall-mounted installation 
H 55 cm W 40 cm D 10 cm


"The act of making these pieces inherently questions the idea of function. Elaborate goblets and vessels are rendered useless by their integration into the sculpture as if they were painted on board, and meticulously sculpted fruits and meats are just as inedible as pigmented oil.

Whilst my work, by its very focus, requires a profound understanding of the material and its technical application, I have developed an interesting dichotomy in my thoughts and emotional response towards the purity of technical value and its relation to function. 

My series Irreverence and recently Total Irreverence are my attempts to express this contradiction. The creation of these Venetian-inspired goblets requires the highest level of control and technical skill, and the difficulty of this is a source of enormous frustration and huge pride in those who pursue the practice. All this emotional and temporal investment culminates in a vessel from which to simply drink, it may be of one of the oldest inventions of humankind, but it is still an object that is simply to be used."


Total Irreverence in Scarlet
Unique wall-mounted installation
H 55 cm W 40 cm D 10 cm
 
"Glass as a material is historically bound to the idea of function and by transforming these refined forms into a state where their function has been destroyed, I am elevating them away from this idea towards something more theoretical. The perceived violence by which this is done also expresses my rejection of the dogma that has evolved around the methods of their creation. 

Some iterations of these sculptures include ‘trick’ goblets that are specifically designed with functional disruptions, such as self-emptying if filled too high and secret spouts from which to drink. These goblets were designed at the height of the golden age of glassmaking, and many of the secrets were lost over the centuries, mostly due to the fragility of their construction and the rowdy environments in which they were used."


Total Irreverence in Neon Green
Unique wall-mounted installation
Details below of the middle 'trick' goblet, which on overfilling will self-empty
H 55 cm W 40 cm D 10 cm


"Last year was a time of development and study for me. I travelled to the USA to study antique sheet glass production, and to Venice in Italy, to study chandelier-making processes and techniques. I also had the pleasure of studying with Mark Barreda, who has extensive practical and theoretical knowledge of the rarest of goblets. All these new skills are being integrated into my latest sculptures and opening my practice to new conceptual focuses. 

My collection of dichromatic flower vases further investigates another great vein of still life painting and makes direct use of the skills I learned in Venice. These sculptures hybridise the ostentatious bouquets of the European baroque style and the similarly outrageous designs and construction methods seen in Venetian chandeliers.

Each incorporates a delicate millefleur of flowers such as lilac and hydrangea that repose amongst fern-like arms and gently curving leaves. All elements are blown to allow for a thin metal fitting to support the structure and act as a stem; with my recently acquired chandelier knowledge in mind, it could be said, the only thing missing is the light source.

The single use of glass colour for the blooms, which is transformed via heating, resulting in the additional lustrious metallic surface, is to add visual drama and the idea that these flowers are eternal. Shifting light upon these works highlights the reflective surfaces and the subtle transmission of hue and tone, unique properties of the special colours employed within each composition." 


Floral Composition in Black and Gold I
Unique
H 83.5 cm W 46 cm D 30 cm





Still Life with Lemon Branch in Black
Unique
H 43 cm W 43 cm D 33 cm





Still Life with Lemon Branch in White
Unique
H 44 cm W 31 cm D 25 cm





Bichromatic Blooms V
Unique
H 87 cm W 52 cm D 30 cm




Further artwork by Elliot Walker 
Photography by Agata Pec