feature

Notable casts

Artist Marlene Rose uses molds to make a statement out of glass.

By LENNIE BENNETT, Times Art Critic
Published May 20, 2007

Marlene Rose, Geometric Buddha II, cast glass and metal.
	[Gulf Coast Museum of Art]

ADVERTISEMENT [Gulf Coast Museum of Art] Marlene Rose, Water Scarab, 2006, cast glass and metal. [Gulf Coast Museum of Art] Marlene Rose, Sunshine Buddha, 2006, cast glass and metal.

LARGO

Glass, so delicate, is a physically tough medium for an artist. Creating it requires the transformation at volcanic heat of a solid into a liquid then back to a solid. It requires heavy lifting in its most dangerous liquid stage and, at the end, great finesse. It's a medium few women choose.

Marlene Rose did.

It was the right choice, as a collection of mostly recent works at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art demonstrates.

Rose casts glass rather than blow it, meaning she builds up a mold in damp sand and pours molten glass into it. The glass is slowly cooled in a process called annealing, removed when hardened and finished with burnishing.

Most sculptures are dated 2007 and their number - 19 out of 32 in the show - indicates she has been busy during the past four months. Hers are not technically the most sophisticated examples of cast glass but their rough edges are purposeful.

Buddha heads are a preoccupation, nearly identical in form but individualized by different elements color, for example and accompanying sculptural components such as squares or circles. Grouped together, as most of them are, they convey a repetitiousness and a sense of shifting perceptions as if moving through cycles of prayer. Sunshine Buddha is set against a block of glass separated into grids suggesting light that both illuminates and casts shadows. Geometric Buddha is a deeply hued meditation on red, and a trio of Buddhas are positioned against glass panels shaped like cutting boards in orange, green and purple, titled Bread Board Buddha Triptych. (The bread boards are a strange but interesting mixed metaphor.)

None of the works is monumental, yet the simplicity of design rendered in thick slabs gives them great mass. Some look like they could have been found in an archeological dig. Rose incorporates scavenged metal scraps in most, sometimes for embellishment, sometimes as an integral part of the basic form as in pipes forming headdresses on African "masks." Her colors can be so dense as to make the glass opaque, appearing to be clay or paint applied in rough swaths. Texture comes from bits of frit, or powdered glass. Slight asymmetries give them an off-balance intrigue.

Two of the sculptures are large installations. Bell shapes are mounted in three rows onto a stand, strapped onto wooden bars by criss-crossed metal resembling leather. The work is loaded with small revelations. The bells are embedded with springs, roofing nails and other metal detritus, stuff of which real bells are made. Sturdy as they look, we know that a gong would shatter them; the only noise they would ever make would be in their destruction.

The Rampart, the work itself, isn't that large - three orbs each measuring about 18 inches. They're positioned in an imposing wood surround constructed as a minimalist breakfront that would look cool in a Manhattan loft. Backlit, each orb glows with muted colors.

The earthiness of Rose's work can belie its complexities. Autumn Striped Door is a block of clear glass embedded with thin slips of color separated by copper strips. Like most of her sculptures, this one benefits from being viewed from the back as well as the front so the multistep process of layering those colors is visible.

Armatures are usually functional ciphers, made to secure art and be as invisible as possible. Those Rose has made for hers are integral parts of the glass, often functioning like elegant marks of punctuation.

Lennie Bennett can be reached at (727) 893-8293 or lennie@sptimes.com.

Review

Marlene Rose: Ancient and Elemental

The exhibit is at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, 12211 Walsingham Road, Largo, through July 15. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8 adults, $7 seniors, $4 students. (727) 518-6833 or www.gulfcoastmuseum.org.

[Last modified May 19, 2007, 02:40:50]