Helen Slater Stokes Glass

Helen Slater Stokes

Optical Glass Sculptures

Void, 2022, Kiln-formed glass and ceramic transfer, 40 x 40 x 5.5 cm

Asymmetric Vortex, 2019, Kiln-formed glass, ceramic transfer and steel

Bio

Dr Helen Slater Stokes makes unique glass sculptures, using techniques developed over 25 years as an artist working in glass.

Helen gained an M.A. from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 1996. Having exhibited extensively, she went back to the RCA to complete a PhD by practice in 2021 She lectures and has presented research papers at numerous conferences, most recently the Glass Art Society Conference 2019, in Florida USA and THe British Glass Biennale 2022. Notably her work has been selected for, the Bronze award at the Bullseye Projects USA touring exhibtion, Tg: Transitions in Kiln-Glass, the International KOGEI Award 2020 Toyama, Japan, the Horbowy International Glass Competition, Poland and the British Glass Biennale 2017, 2019 & 2022. It has also featured in the ‘New Glass Review 41’, Corning Museum of Glass.

Oculus, 2019, Kiln-formed glass and ceramic transfer, 27 x 24 x 5 cm

These works combine notions of visual spatial perception and an objects physical surface, to question where the material surface of the pictorial plane resides and how we perceive spatial depth.

The imagery adopted, and resulting spatial tension, aim to engage with current issues around encroachment, distancing and proximity Titles reference a dialogue around health, social inequalities and overcrowding, by suggesting we consider our perception of space and the space between, as we coexist Geometric forms analyse the mathematical quantifiable nature of space, devoid of emotion, as theses virtual, almost holographic, time-based spaces animate and change, in harmony with the observers movement

Digital

By working across several digital applications Helen designs the lenticular imagery, which is then rigorously tested with a kiln-formed glass lens to ensure the desired effect is achieved.

The Workshop

Each piece is unique, and after it is carefully designed on paper and then digitally rendered and tested, it is physically formed in the workshop.

Glass sculptures can go in and out of the kiln up to six times, in order to create the various elements that make up a piece These firings can last anything from three days to one month. Once all the sections are produced they are then brought back together in a final piece and the cold working can begin. The physical act of cold working a piece can take days or weeks depending on the required finish and scale of the sculpture.

These high risk works need to be millimetre perfect in order for the lens and image to mesh accurately and generate the required image, form or pattern. Achieving the fine margins needed, when working with what are hands-off kiln-forming processes - as the piece is in the kiln, are a result of years of glass making knowledge.

About

Profile

Glass Artist and Lecturer; Helen graduated from The Royal College of Art, with a master’s degree in 3D Design: Glass & Ceramics, in 1996 and since then has been lecturing and making glass sculpture from her workshop in the Cotswolds