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Toland Sand’s exhibit is a celebration of transparency, illusion, reflection, depth, color, and magic. These qualities are perfectly revealed in his use of Dichroic and optical glass. Sand’s approach to his work is one of exploration, trying to reveal an interior complexity within a simple and elegant sculptural form. The viewer moves to the interior of the piece and then back out to the skin of the form, attempting to take in the entirety of the artwork. The experience is much like navigating an architectural form, the exterior only hinting of the interior complexity.
Sand states “My connection with glass lies in its primordial, timeless nature and extraordinary properties. It beckons to me with its myriad possibilities. It's a chimera of forms yet to be, a huge spectrum of color, opacities, and light, waiting only for the opportunity to become real and to enchant.” Sand’s sculpture becomes a magnet such as in "HELIOPOLIS DEO." The exterior is a large cube segmented, then rearranged to create 3 separate but attached forms. Upon close examination a tension is noted by the larger more weighty sections resting on the points of the cubes and yet the whole is stable. The interior seems to be a complex mathematical formula which must spell out the secret of an important discovery. The radiance of the optical glass is mesmerizing. One immediately knows the difference in Target’s glassware and Waterford Crystal. The purity of crystal or optical glass is striking. Sand acknowledges the viewer's desire to turn the piece by placing each on a perfectly articulated stand which glidingly turns with the touch of a finger. The active viewer becomes the fulcrum of the piece, experiencing and discovering layers of glass, planes, images and reflections. As you walk around one of Sand’s pieces it changes depending on your angle of vision. The light is reflected and refracted through the various types of glass bouncing on the walls and floor. The viewer is subtly connected to his surroundings as he is drawn into the piece.
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Traces of Sand’s variety of experiences can be seen in his work. Born in Berkley, California in 1949, leaving California in 1954, living in Taiwain and spending his teen years as a resident of Greece have left a visual mark. Sand says of his experiences “the colors of the sky, fog and sea in Carmel, growing up in an artistic home, and being surrounded by the glorious architecture of the ancient Greeks. He has vivid memories of Athenian workmen chiseling marble to construct and repair the municipal buildings of Athens.”
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While exploring the interior, the viewer can frequently find hieroglyphic markings that weave in and out. Other times, the marks which are etched or cut out lines can’t be as easily defined. Are they another language being seen and heard? Or patterns created by words which are not yet defined. Attending high school in Athens and travelling as much as possible during such impressionable years must still be very active in Toland’s mind. The importance of exterior form in each of his pieces reflects the love and preservation of historic structures not only in Greece but in all of Europe. Many titles reflect his time in Greece and frequent return visits, such as "HELIOPOLIS DEO" and "ISIS CUBE."
“LIGHT BASKET” is a departure from Toland’s usual concentration on the interior. In this piece the graceful exterior form reigns. This piece harks back to his multiple connections to oceans in various parts of the world. Sand seems most comfortable living in close proximity to large bodies of water, stating that he feels most comfortable when he returns to the Carmel Valley in California where his parents still live. The sections of interior mathematical structures are more calming in “LIGHT BASKET.” He states “I draw inspiration from the old and the new, from the familiar and the imagined. The unfolding and the exploration are the substance of it, the joy in it, like following a winding path to the top of a hill, hoping to find a great view or an ancient mystery.”
Graduating from Colorado College in 1971 with a degree in Philosophy, Toland turned to glass by 1977. Working first with stained glass and then moving to glass blowing, he transitioned to constructed glass sculpture in 1985 and has been working full time in that medium ever since. Toland has participated in the Venice Biennale and has been nominated for the 1999 Living Treasure Governor’s Award for New Hampshire. He has completed many commissions, most notably for the CEOs of McDonald`s USA and Japan, as well as for IBM, Verizon, Coca Cola, Carpet Master and UPS. His work is also in numerous private collections throughout the world.
The Process
The process begins with large blocks of glass that are cut with a diamond tipped saw to the appropriate size and then ground and polished. Next Sand begins constructing the piece from the inside to the outside with thin layers of various colors of dichroic glass sandwiched between layers of optical glass and plate glass. It is a time consuming process. After each layer is laminated it must dry before he can proceed. One sculpture can often take six to eight weeks to complete.
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