Bird form from 'Granslndet' glass installation, 2002, cast glass, ht 17.6 cm
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Bird form from 'Granslndet' installation, 2002, cast glass, ht 16.6 cm
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to let the imagination take over, to see things that are at once frightening and alluring. The boughs of the dark trees reach down towards the water, revealing fantastic beings that stretch out towards me … beckoning, perhaps seeking to pull me down.’
Despite such sombre musings, humour, playfulness and joie-de-vivre are characteristic elements of Kjell Engman’s artistry. In 1998–99, he exhibited dancers with massive yet light-footed glass bodies. The colour scale was dark, with shades of red, brown, blue and green. These expressive figures were painstakingly realised in the hot shop, where Engman and master glassblower Tuomo Nieminen work in close cooperation.
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philosophical interpretation of life inspired by Buddhism.
In this series Engman explored life as a cyclic phenomenon,
a dynamic continuum of eternal creation, transformation
and rebirth.
‘Art glass is my laboratory,’ says Engman. ‘It’s where my
ideas are hatched and aspirations are tested…though
sometimes I feel it’s a kind of guerrilla operation, waged
alongside the design and production of ordinary, everyday
wares. You can only start thinking about developing
your own artistic style when you’ve made sure that people
have work in the glass factory.'
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‘I tried to capture movement, to use it together with the
light to enhance the expressiveness of the dancers,’ he
says. ‘They seem to have a rhythmic quality about them.’
Engman’s latest installation, Gränslandet, consisting of
brightly coloured bird-like forms, relates a romanticised
story of the artist’s Borderland – ‘That magical place between
heaven, land and sea where all thing happen’. For
the artist, this is the region where water meets light, and
where it sometimes crystallises and captures light.
Indeed, Engman likens his sculptures to a photographic
plate, in that they arrest a natural movement in glass like
a photograph captures a moment in time, thereby mag-
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| His large-scale installation in 1997, Waters of Myth, combined
visual effects with sound to create a truly unique
experience. In preparation for the exhibition, Engman researched the source of life, studying myths about water
from cultures all over the world. The resultant show,
which was mounted at museums throughout Sweden and
at the Ebeltoft Museum of Glass in Denmark, drew
deeply on Nordic legends and folklore, and aroused enormous
public interest. Waxing lyrical about the installation,
Engman wrote: ‘Now elves and fauns, and nymphs
and sprites delight to dance in woods, to skip and cartwheel
by the shore, to tumble dizzily by glistening waters
…A crescent moon hangs low and touches the wavelets
of the brook.’
A diligent and patient observer of nature, Engman elaborated
on his relationship with water and its myths: ‘It’s
fascinating to sit watching the shadows formed by the
pale light piercing the clouds, to see how the shadows in
turn affect the appearance of the water. How easy it is
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Detail of 'Albatross' from 'Granslndet' installation, 2002,
blown, cast, kiln-formed, fused, engraved glass, diam. 46 cm
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