Studio Orta

Glasstress. White Light / White Heat, curated by Adriano Berengo and James Putnam, invites artists to deal with light and heat, intrinsic aspects of glass and its working. Glass is born from the creative and destructive force of fire, which transforms the basic chemical elements into a viscous fluid. The result is a malleable matter with a chaotic, molecular structure providing light with a limitless variety of surfaces, colours, transparencies and reflections.

Specially commissioned for this exhibition, Lucy + Jorge Orta’s Amazonia Tree of Life is a magnificent bronze tree trunk, felled and polished over the years by river currents. Delicate blossoms of handcrafted glass flowers grafted onto carefully selected olive branches from the Mediterranean extend outward from the trunk. 

Amazonia Tree of Life follows the trajectory of Lucy + Jorge Orta’s ongoing Perpetual Amazonia project. During their expedition to the Peruvian Amazon in 2009 the artists photographed hundreds of rainforest plant species, a personalised collection of florilegium they continue to add to during their travels across the world. These florae have since been transformed into large format photographs, drawings, handcrafted couture works and porcelain objects. The latest interpretations in glass have been blown by the master craftsmen Danilo Zanella at the Berengo Studio in Venice, a truly unique addition to this ambitious project.

Glasstress is a collateral event of the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice.