field notes
field notes ANNIE CATTRELL ANNE VIBEKE MOU ANNE PETTERS JEFF ZIMMER The Byre at Latheron House, Latheronwheel, Scotland
THE ENDURING EDGE by Lani McGregor AUGUST 2020 “Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard.” - Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore Six months after opening the second Byre exhibition we returned for a final photo shoot of its rooms. It was early March of 2020 and what had seemed at the time a quick visit to the site with plans for future additions, alterations, private tours, and events merged almost overnight with a world in which a precarious edge was moving into its center.
that the familiar can bury beneath the cacophony of routine. Field Notes at The Byre encapsulates timelessness. I am denied access to it and likely will be for many months to come. Yet it is even more vividly present because of this challenge. In a “continuous, endless loop,” The Byre holds magically intact the insights, the visions, the engagement of its four artists. I am deeply grateful for it and to them.
Beyond the edge of the world there’s a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop.
I returned to the US as our borders with the rest of the HARUKI MURAKAMI world slammed shut. The closures brought with them a novel sense of time, as if the timelessness of The Byre had traveled with me into a world more unknown and more fantastical even than the one translated by our artists with their installations.
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Thank you, Annie Cattrell, Anne Petters, Anne Vibeke Mou, and Jeff Zimmer. You have brought the edge permanently into our space. It will be here long after all this has passed. Thanks also to the writers/ curators for this small publication: Michael Endo and Karlyn Sutherland.
To my own reduced but indefatigable staff at Bullseye Projects, and to all the people of Bullseye Glass who have looked over so many edges in recent years and always brought back ideas for a brighter center.
Reflecting now on the Field Notes installation, I am both saddened—at the opportunities lost in these months of lockdown—but also heartened.
LANI MCGREGOR is the Director of Bullseye Projects and co-
Artists have long gone into distant territory to find answers
Annie Cattrell at Latheronwheel Harbor; photo by K. Sutherland.
owner of Bullseye Glass Co. in Portland, Oregon.
RIGHT Artists Jeff Zimmer, Anne Vibeke Mou, Anne Petters, and
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ANNIE CATTRELL Airt, 2019, glass, fiber optic, wood, slate
This body of work consists of a series of mixed media sculptural interventions that reference and embody notions of physical accuracy, material fragility, and ethical honesty. ANNIE CATTRELL
LOOKING DOWN ON THE SEA FROM THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE by Michael Endo APRIL 2020 Excerpts and earlier versions of this text were first published in blog form at www.bullseyeprojects.com. On a rocky cliff overlooking the waters of the North Sea, the dirt and grass beneath my feet only just covers layers of sedimentary rock that was formed at the bottom of a lake 370 million years ago. Caithness, the northernmost county in Scotland, was once covered by a massive Devonian lake. Eons of time, geologic pressure, tectonic shifts, and undulant waters pushed this rugged, stony coastline above the waves. Millions of years after its formation, this stone was quarried to create dwellings, cairns, brochs, circles, and fortifications, offering layers of human history told to us through stone. Around three hundred years ago a series of joined buildings, whose history is threadbare and speculative, were built of stone unearthed from an adjacent field. For a time, they were inhabited by animals. Later, farming equipment. Later still, they became a storeroom and garage. Their current and most unlikely incarnation is that of a remote art installation space called The Byre. Beginning in 2016, The Byre has opened its four distinct spaces—horse barn, cow barn, storeroom, and hay barn— to artists, who are invited to develop work in response to The Byre’s unique surrounds. In August of 2019, the group exhibition Field Notes opened, featuring work by Annie Cattrell, Anne Vibeke Mou, Anne Petters, and Jeff Zimmer. Through site visits and a group residency, the artists considered the landscape, the people, and the culture of the region while developing site-specific installations, each in an individual room of The Byre. Although distinct, thematic lay lines intersect and overlap each space. Annie Cattrell and Anne Vibeke Mou, whose installations reside in the horse barn and storeroom respectively, drew from the relationships between human activity and Caithness through empirical, geologic, and anthropological research. Anne Petters and Jeff Zimmer— hay barn and cow barn—focused instead on narrative and phenomena, exploring the experiences of both the visitors and residents of this remote region. 6
Field notes are the recordings created in the course of direct study; a method of capturing observations by a particular person at a particular time. They are not conclusions, but open-ended catalogs, revealing one’s experience of looking. The exhibition titled Field Notes functions similarly. By mining the poetic space between what is seen and what is felt, between the land and the sea; between our romantic projections and daily life; between the past and the present; each artist has recorded aspects of this unique place, speaking to the land, sea, time, and inhabitants. DEEP TIME By physically measuring The Byre, examining geolocation data, and researching the geologic history of Caithness, Annie Cattrell’s works in the horse barn consider deep time, a concept proposed by Scottish geologist James Hutton to describe the massive time scale involved in the formation of the earth. Gravitational Drawing, a semi-performative installation at the south end of the horse barn, encapsulates this concept. A small electric kiln, placed in the rafters, was slowly heated and the glass contained within melted through a hole cut in the bottom. The viscous glass cooled as it fell, creating long lines of vibrant red glass that whorled around themselves on the flagstone floor. The record of this event is the eponymous drawing, a sculptural tangle of red glass strings. While the glass melted, one witnessed the pull of gravity against a material that was mid-transformation from solid to liquid and then to solid again. In this way, it mimics the formation of the stones upon which it rests. 1900 - 3300 consists of crossed fins of turquoise and amber glass strings oriented along the cardinal directions. The stringers, pinched within a steel frame, rest upon the uneven cobblestone floor, evoking a contour gauge. 1900 - 3300 references a geolocation coordinate positioned a few meters from The Byre. The topology of the floor projected by the stringers emphasizes the unique qualities of the space—a kind of fingerprint—while the title places the work within a larger context. These works show Cattrell’s interest in combining visual art with scientific inquiry, seeking out the poetic space between what can be recorded and what can be felt.
I am particularly interested in the parallels and connections that can be drawn within both art and science. More specifically, how observational methods and vantage of focus can contribute to the bridging of concepts and processes as seen through sculptural interventions. ANNIE CATTRELL
ANNIE CATTRELL 1900 - 3300, 2019, glass stringer, stainless steel
PHOTO A.CATTRELL ANNIE CATTRELL 1900 - 3300 (detail view), 2019, glass stringer, stainless steel
Anne Vibeke Mou’s studio practice focuses on the use of abandoned or obsolete processes, the narrative and conceptual possibilities found in materials, and what is discovered through material transformation. Mou’s installation, An Unearthly Garden, was developed through her exploration of local industries and their relationship with the sea. By burning kelp, heather, and hay to create ash, Mou re-created a process used in glassmaking centuries ago. Melted with base ingredients and the crushed fossils of tetrapodomorphs—which record the adaptation of sea animals to the land—these materials are transformed into glass, connecting the land and the sea, deep time and the present, and ourselves with history. Glass spheres, lengths of glass strings, fossils, and bits of kelp and heather—components and results of the process—are presented on a large slate slab pulled from the courtyard. The aesthetic arrangement of the objects situates the work somewhere between personal collection, museological display, and metaphysical divination. Looking past the stone plinth one sees Lake Orcadie (Gyroptychius agassizi), a glass engraving that spans across three window lites. Delicate and barely discernible, the symmetrical engraving depicts the titular lobe-finned fish. “My glass contains remnants of an evolutionary moment where life stepped out of the water and onto land,” says Mou. “[The project] speaks of how our story continues to intertwine with the forests of the sea and is even embedded in the history of glassmaking.” REFLECTION Jeff Zimmer approached his installation in the cow barn by first collecting stories from the LGBTIQ+ community in Caithness, interviewing twenty individuals who grew up, have lived, or currently live in the region surrounding The Byre. Through these personal exchanges, Zimmer created a body of work that communicates these experiences. Dominating the room are recurring black mirrors that reflect the room darkly. The black mirror (also called a Claude glass) was popular amongst landscape enthusiasts in the 18th century. Named after the painter Claude Lorraine, the black mirror was used to view the landscape. It would act as a filter, generating subtle gradations of tone that mimicked the subtlety found in Claude Lorraine’s paintings. Titled Presence of Absence, Zimmer’s mirrors reflect not the landscape, but the room in which they reside. The viewer becomes a dark reflection or silhouette. This erasure or obfuscation was
a consistent theme throughout the stories that Zimmer collected during the project. Some of these stories are represented in illuminated glass paintings throughout the space. In No One Knew For Sure, two figures stand in the foreground. They are apart but turned with heads tilted toward one another, while a solitary house is visible in the distance. Of the twenty or so stories collected, Zimmer chose to depict four in this manner. A lone car on an empty road at dusk in After Dark (I) or a solitary figure in She/Her do not explicitly say anything, but instead are a whisper. Shelter along with Epithet/Empower (Brick), are the most overt references to Zimmer’s project. Shelter depicts the reclined embrace of what appear to be two nude men. The details are elusive but the implication, being situated among the other illuminated paintings, is clear. On the flagstones below is Epithet/Empower (Brick), a rectilinear block of pink glass. Embedded beneath the surface is the word “queer,” embodying the reclaimed slur in a brick, a weapon of bigotry and symbol of revolution. The black mirror is a method for viewing the world differently and Zimmer’s work alludes to changing perspectives. Looking askance at some of the mirrors reveals excerpts from the poetry of Edwin Morgan. Zimmer selected quotes about “... the love, beauty, and alienation that can be found in the shadows and in darkness.” Walking through the space one pieces together the narratives. There are many worlds overlaying one another, multiple meanings. Small details, such as the lavender and pink glass that Zimmer embedded in the crevices and thresholds, may be seen or overlooked. Regardless, they are integral to the history of a place. Passing from the cow barn, through the storeroom, and into the hay barn, one first sees a projection on the far wall. Anne Petters’ Reflection on Reflection casts an image of what appears to be a sunset glinting off a golden sea. This natural phenomenon, however, is revealed to be a piece of gilded glass being captured by an iPhone and fed into a projector that is hidden beneath a low-lying plinth. The light reflecting off the textured surface creates the illusion. Petters does not attempt to hide the artifice and yet the beauty of the golden sunset upon the sea is not diminished. These antinomies weave throughout Petters’ works. The romantic projection by visitors onto a remote place such
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The aesthetic and critical revelations of working with processes considered obsolete is an essential part of my artistic practice... In recent projects I have composed bespoke glass recipes by transforming botanical and geological elements to plot abandoned histories and ancient landscapes. ANNE VIBEKE MOU ANNE VIBEKE MOU An Unearthly Garden, 2019 - ongoing found objects and glass made from kelp ash, tetrapodomorph fossils, and Bullseye Glass batch
ANNE PETTERS Book of the Sea, 2019, kilnformed glass, wood stand, plaster
(top right) Silent Echos, 2019, kilnformed glass (bottom right) White Sequence, 2019, kilnformed glass
I use glass and other materials, including natural phenomena, in a poetic, metaphoric way to picture our fleeting, vulnerable existence. ANNE PETTERS
PHOTO A. MACKAY ANNE PETTERS Book of the Sea, 2019, kilnformed glass, wood stand, plaster
(left) Silent Echos, 2019, kilnformed glass
as The Byre, or Caithness in general, manifests narratives of personal transformation and self-discovery. Byre means barn. Animals were kept here. The “arrow-slit” windows were for ventilation, not defense. Each mystery of this building likely has a commonplace explanation, and yet these walls evoke something akin to magic. The stories we have are confabulations, comprised of scant facts, anecdotal accounts, and speculation. Throughout Petters’ installation, glass “pages” filled with diaristic and automatic writing reference the stories we will never know about the spaces we come to occupy. Book of the Sea gathers these pages into a crumpled book of pronounced fragility. Comprised of glass frit, delicately fired and expertly molded, the pages are sugarlike in texture. The minute facets of the glass particles capture and reflect the light, causing the text to shift in visibility.
building has the capacity to evoke contemplation of one’s place in the world. The Byre, similarly, begs questions about its history, inspiring inquiry into the past of this specific place, leading to broader questions about human habitation and the formation of the landscape. We then reflect on where we fit into this story, in deep time. The building itself is a component of each installation. Given this, it isn’t surprising that each of the artists responded to the building by including elements that could possibly go unseen: Zimmer’s lavender glass embedded in the crevices of the cow barn; Mou’s barely there engraving; Petters’ invisible writing; and Cattrell’s piece, Airt, which is partially obscured in a watering trough. These elements show an eagerness to become part of the building, part of the long story of the stones. Leaving the exhibition— walking down the drive, through the village of Latheronwheel, and back to the seaside cliff—is like walking through time. The rock and roiling water in the harbor appears infinite, and human time scale so insignificant. The rock has witnessed it all. While writing about a similarly stony landscape, American curmudgeon Edward Abbey wondered if humans weren’t merely a dream, and rock the only real thing. Standing here, looking down on the sea from what was once the bottom of the lake, I wonder the same thing.
Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear—the earth remains, slightly modified... I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real.
This effect is even more pronounced in Silent Echoes, a hanging installation comprised of four “pages” of increasing degrees of fragility. Suspended apart and offset, the jagged fore-edge of each page overlaps the previous, allowing only a glimpse of what lies beneath. Circling the EDWARD ABBEY sculpture, one observes that it responds to light by shifting in transparency. The writing is thus hidden and revealed; however, whether plainly visible or obscured, the text throughout these works is unintelligible. It is composed in a variety of languages, written in reverse—a product of Petters’ process—and at times in illegible script. Words or phrases may appear, but reading these stories isn’t the point. They are mere symbols, stand-ins for Petters’ perspective or the stories we create about a place. They are fragments that may have been gleaned from a local shepherd or imagined by visitors who happen upon a ruined barn at the edge of the world. STONE STORIES The Byre is a striking place in which to exhibit artwork. The 18th- and 19th-century romantic artists knew that a ruined
“Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear—the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break...I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real.” – Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness MICHAEL ENDO is an artist and curator based in the Mojave
Desert, USA.
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I create works that explore ambiguity, morality, and mortality in contemporary society and politics, and engage with the sensual experiences of mystery and light. JEFF ZIMMER
JEFF ZIMMER instllaed view, kilnformed glass, enameled glass, lightboxes
PHOTO A. MACKAY JEFF ZIMMER (above) Epithet/Empower (Brick), 2019, enameled, laser-etched, and kilnformed glass
(left) The dim shadow of the thing was but a blur against the dim shadows of the woods behind it, 2019, kilnformed glass
RESIDENCE by Karlyn Sutherland MARCH 2020 As a Caithness native (and having grown up in Lybster, four miles north of Latheron House and The Byre), the impact that this corner of the world has had on me has been considerable, although not something that I’ve always fully understood or acknowledged. Leaving the Highlands in 2002 to study architecture in Edinburgh, I never imagined I’d return for much more than a holiday. I graduated in 2008, as the recession was taking hold, and, faced with dwindling employment prospects, accepted the offer of a research scholarship at the University of Edinburgh—a completely unexpected turn, but an incredibly fortuitous decision. I was (and still am) fascinated by environmental psychology, and in particular by the notion of place; what makes somewhere special, meaningful, memorable, and even transformative? With much of the existing research focusing upon people’s homes and hometowns, I began to think about these findings in relation to mine. Years of working in a local hotel had shown me a transient community of glassmakers who (thanks to North Lands Creative, founded in Lybster in 1995) were drawn to and inspired by that corner of the world, often again and again. Still resident in Edinburgh, I read everything I possibly could about North Lands. A search in the university library turned up an article written by one of its founding members, Dan Klein, in celebration of its first decade. The Caithness he described so passionately in that piece—both from his own experience and that of others, retold to him—seemed a world away from the place I thought I had known. I was staggered, and, feeling driven to understand how and why artists were responding to this corner of the world, enrolled in two classes at North Lands. Although a participant, my main goal had been to be an observer of others; to understand the emotional, psychological responses to this place that manifested themselves in creativity. The idea that Caithness had the capability to be so positively transformative seemed quite unlikely. I was desperate and so curious to learn what it was that made so many visiting artists “fall under its spell” as Klein had described. Despite it not being my priority to focus upon making, I was, 20
much to my surprise, immediately captivated by working with glass. I met Lani McGregor for the first time during that class (which was sponsored by Bullseye Glass Co.) and again at a conference later that year. We began to keep in touch. Whilst still a student, I was fortunate enough to participate in a series of residencies and symposia at North Lands, and for several years, when opportunity allowed, made smallscale, mostly sculptural studies that explored my experience and memories of derelict buildings dotted around the Caithness coast. One evening in the summer of 2013, my studies almost over, I found myself sitting at the dining table in Latheron House with Lani, Michael Endo (Curator at Bullseye Projects), and artist Emily Nachison. Over dessert, Lani revealed that the run-down old byre to the rear of the house was to become an exhibition space; Emily and I, along with fellow artists Silvia Levenson and Michael Rogers, were to each be invited to create work for one of the four spaces within the building. It seemed a wild and unlikely outcome for an old farm building in rural Caithness, and I couldn’t really wrap my head around what that would be like, but it was so wonderfully openended and exciting that I, of course, said yes immediately. With Silvia’s work already in existence, Emily, Michael (Rogers) and I got together in Caithness for two weeks at a time in the summers of 2014 and 2015, thanks to the generous support of Bullseye, who had organised short residencies at North Lands. Although the studio time was greatly appreciated, the most fruitful, meaningful conversations and moments took place in the house and Byre—solitary spells and time spent assisting one another in the spaces we were working in, and evenings spent sitting in the library, unpacking our days. Friendships were firmly cemented, and those occasions of discussing progress and airing doubts (and of throwing around ideas and ambitions over tea and the odd whisky) gave me courage, understanding, and sudden traction in relation to my creative work. The installation I created was an experiment, and a pivotal moment within my practice. It allowed me, for the first time, to work on a much larger scale and to understand and experience on a very personal level just how art and
I combine techniques of glass painting, laser etching, and contemporary lighting with the transparency of glass to create dynamic scenes that appear to shift, dissolve, and transform depending on the position of the viewer. JEFF ZIMMER
PHOTO A. MACKAY JEFF ZIMMER Future Queer Archaeology, 2019, glass
architecture could be intertwined with, and tell the story of, place. The exhibition (titled Permeable Structure) was on show for two years and in that time saw visitors from all around the world. Word spread far and wide, and it was truly amazing to be able to share the work and a slice of our experience with all who stepped over the threshold. The space I had made work for—formerly a stable—was passed to Annie Cattrell, who, by coincidence, was in Caithness as we began to deinstall the show in August 2018. Catching sight of her assisting Michael (Endo) to take down a piece of mine, it felt right to me that she should be there as this chapter ended and the next began—a kind of informal changing of the guard. Over the course of the next year, I had the privilege of hosting the next four Byre artists—Annie, Anne Vibeke Mou, Anne Petters, and Jeff Zimmer—at Latheron House, and of witnessing the development and realisation of new ideas in relation to The Byre, watching them become immersed in this project and place as a group, just as we had before them. All four were together in Latheronwheel for the first time in late March 2019, arriving heavily laden with everything from glass samples to treasured tools to ingredients for favourite recipes. Bullseye had again generously hired the studio at North Lands, and so, for two weeks the artists split their time between Lybster and The Byre, retiring to the house after long days, where we would all cook, eat, and talk (and laugh) late into the evenings. Conversations drifted back and forth, considering the tangible and the intangible, the personal and the scientific, touching upon concepts relating to the land and the sea, the people and the culture, as ideas for new work took shape; the gaps in the flagstone floor began to be filled with glass beads in one space, whilst a kiln was installed in another. Alongside these interventions there were studies—of local folklore, industry, and geological history; the science of deep time was considered in tandem with a more recent history in the informal interviewing of a beloved local farmer, now in his tenth decade. Their stay was a hive of activity from beginning to end, and a joy to both behold and be part of. And then suddenly, it was over, and the artists—exhausted but exhilarated—had left, returning to their respective studios for the refinement and finessing of ideas and work, the now empty Byre awaiting
their return. Lani and I, alone in a strangely quiet house, began to map out the logistics of the preview and opening, merely months away. The summer of 2019 marked ten years since Dan Klein’s passing. Ahead of the opening of Field Notes, I was preparing Latheron House for the arrival of the many visitors and the new artworks they were coming to see. By chance, as I was freeing up storage space upstairs, I came across a postcard at the back of a shelf. Handwritten and unstamped, it was from Dan, written many years ago to thank Lani and her husband Dan (Schwoerer) for a dinner they had hosted, expressing his delight at them having chosen (following his encouragement) to make Caithness their second home: “I am so glad you listened to my advice about throwing caution to the winds— it’s the only way sometimes.” I never had the good fortune to meet Dan Klein; he died the day after I began that first class at North Lands. Without him, there are many of us who, to varying degrees in our lives and careers, would likely have forged quite different paths. In realising their vision for The Byre, Lani and Dan (Schwoerer) have provided for so many, in turn, what Dan Klein provided for them: the encouragement and opportunity to take a leap into the unknown and to expand horizons beyond expectation, all in an unlikely corner of the world. It is no exaggeration to say that what abides here now, in the house and Byre, and what awaits future artists and visitors, is truly remarkable. There is a sense that really, anything could be possible. Ten years ago, I came north looking to try and understand more about the apparent power of this place. What I found on this short stretch of coast that I thought I knew has changed my life immeasurably, just as has happened (and will continue to happen, I’m sure) to many, the current Byre artists included. In terms of the relationship between place, community, and creativity, it’s hard to imagine that a more powerful, rich, or thriving example exists. KARLYN SUTHERLAND is an artist and architect based in
Caithness, Scotland.
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ANNIE CATTRELL Gravitational Drawing, 2019, hand-pulled glass stringer
PHOTO J. ZIMMER
ANNIE CATTRELL Scottish artist Annie Cattrell’s cross-disciplinary practice is rooted in collaboration and dialogues with experts in fields such as neuroscience, meteorology, engineering, psychiatry, and geology. In Field Notes, Cattrell responds to the poetic nature of the building, including its history and connection to the landscape, in a series of sculptures that seek to understand and explore unquantifiable and phenomenological aspects that are felt rather than seen—the undercurrent of the space and its locus. Cattrell studied fine art at Glasgow School of Art, University of Ulster, and the Royal College of Art. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Mori Art Museum, Japan; Victoria and Albert Museum, UK; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland; Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany; Nationalmuseum, Sweden; Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Switzerland; and Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Cattrell has undertaken many large-scale public commissions including work for University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Anglia Ruskin University, UK. She has completed residencies and fellowships including a Helen Chadwick Fellowship at The British School at Rome and University of Oxford; The Royal Institution of Great Britain, UK; Camden Art Centre, UK; and the David Whitehouse Research Residency for Artists at Rakow Research Library, Corning, New York. 25
PHOTO A. PETTERS
ANNE VIBEKE MOU Known for her use of obsolete artistic and production traditions, Anne Vibeke Mou develops her own glass using historic materials from specific sites. In Caithness, kelp was once gathered from the sea, dried and burned, and the ash used in glass recipes of the day. Mou is re-creating this transformative process to fabricate her own glass, referencing the intimate relationship between land and sea found in both the industry and mythology of the region. Born in Denmark, Mou received a BA from Glasgow School of Art in 2002 and an MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2005. Mou has participated in residencies at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, New York; Upernavik Museum, Greenland; and the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK. She has created commissioned work for The Laurence Sterne Trust and the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, and been included in exhibitions at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, UK; Kunstraum Langenlois, Austria; and Camden Arts Centre, UK, amongst others. She currently lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne.
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ANNE VIBEKE MOU An Unearthly Garden (detail view), 2019 - ongoing
found objects and glass made from kelp ash, tetrapodomorph fossils, and Bullseye Glass batch
ANNE PETTERS Silent Echos (detail view), 2019, kilnformed glass
PHOTO J. ZIMMER
ANNE PETTERS Anne Petters is a multimedia artist with a strong background in glass. She received a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Institute for Ceramics and Glass Art, Hoehr-Grenzhausen, Germany, and an M.F.A. in Sculpture/Glass from Alfred University, New York. Born in Dresden in 1978, Petters grew up in the German Democratic Republic. She understands the political change in her country, which she experienced as a displacement of reality, as a basic influence on her lifestyle and artistic work. Her interest in controlling and displaying moments of our fleeting, vulnerable existence leads her to a poetic, metaphoric use of glass and other materials, including natural phenomena. Petters has been awarded numerous artist residencies, including a fellowship at Wheaton Arts New Jersey in 2012, a one-year residential stay at the Edinburgh College of Art in 2013 and 2014, the Emerging Artists in Residence at the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, and a Visiting Scholar Residency at Southern Illinois University. In 2014, Petters received the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Scholarship for excellence in British Craft. She has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art and is currently teaching at City & Guilds of London Art School and University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. 29
PHOTO BULLSEYE GLASS CO.
JEFF ZIMMER Jeff Zimmer creates works that explore ambiguity, morality, and mortality in contemporary society and politics, and engage with the material and symbolic properties of glass, as well as the sensual experiences of mystery, light, and shadow. He combines techniques of glass painting, laser etching, contemporary lighting with the qualities of glass to create dynamic works that appear to shift, dissolve, and transform depending on the position of the viewer. Zimmer originally trained in theatre in Washington, DC, before moving to Edinburgh, Scotland to obtain his Masters in glass painting. He won the 2019 British Glass Biennale and Second Prize in the 2014 Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass, Europe’s largest prize for artists working with glass. He was the 2014 Stephen Procter Fellow at the Australian National University and has done residences at The Creative Glass Center of America, Millville, New Jersey; North Lands Creative Glass, Scotland; and Bullseye Projects, Portland. His work is in the permanent collections of Victoria and Albert Museum, UK; European Museum for Modern Glass, Germany; Portheimka Museum, Prague; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark; and Glasmuseum Frauenau, Germany. Zimmer continues to teach in Edinburgh, and has lead masterclasses and workshops at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington; North Lands Creative Glass, Scotland; Bild-Werk Frauenau, Germany; and Berlin Glas, Germany. 30
JEFF ZIMMER This spectacular darkness,2019, kilnformed glass
Published in conjunction with the exhibition FIELD NOTES Annie Cattrell Anne Vibeke Mou Anne Petters Jeff Zimmer The Byre at Latheron House, Latheronwheel, Scotland August 12, 2019 – March 31, 2021 For artwork and artist information, contact Bullseye Projects 3630 SE 20th Avenue Portland, Oregon 97202 USA +1 503-227-0222 projects@bullseyeglass.com bullseyeprojects.com @bullseyeprojects FRONT COVER Anne Petters on her last day in Caithness at the bottom of the Whaligoe Steps; photo by M. Endo. INSIDE COVER Anne Vibeke Mou, Lake Orcadie (Gyroptychius agassizi), 2019, diamond point engraving on Mexican drawn glass from the Bullseye Glass Co. archive, found fossil; photo by A. Mackay. BACK COVER Anne Petters, Silent Echos (detail view), 2019, kilnformed glass; photo by artist. PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Endo (except where noted) DESIGN Nicole Leaper
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© 2020 BULLSEYE GLASS CO. ISBN 978-1-935299-25-7
