This August, John Kiley will reveal the continuation of this series of work in a show titled 33'18". The ten sculptural objects and video document that comprise this new exhibition are the results of the artist's continued exploration of methods of deconstruction, this time using thermal shock to break the glass. Unlike the initial series of Fractographs, these new works were all broken in a single day - in thirty-three minutes and eighteen seconds, to be exact - and the process of breaking them was meticulously documented using multiple cameras and advanced sound equipment. By pouring molten glass directly onto the surface of each of the 12 thick blocks of optical glass, Kiley shattered each one successively, leaving thousands of broken shards to painstakingly sort and revive. The finished sculptures are reconstructions of the rectilinear forms and are monuments to a moment in time; their unique and captivating network of fissures and shards highlighting the metamorphosis that occurs when the glass material interacts in two different states, molten and solid.
John says of these new works, "there's a lot more wrapped up in this than just the breaking of glass. There is reconciling yourself with a loss, and there is reconciling yourself with what feels like ruin. Look at all these colorful shards... It is a beautiful mess. It feels painful... Painful and powerful".
photography: Jeff Curtis
