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TOLAND SAND
Press Release
Toland Sand
Orientations
May 21 - June 14, 2010
(click on PHOTO to view Press Release) |
An innovator in the use of dichroic glass and polished crystal, Toland’s approach to his pieces is one of exploration, always looking for form and energy. His perspective is one of trying to reveal an interior complexity while not forgetting simplicity and elegance of form. The attention goes in and then back out, attempting to take in the totality of the piece. It is like architecture for consciousness. Access is given to the interior of the solid object and then one can exit, just like an architectural form. One’s attention becomes the fulcrum of the piece’s existence. It becomes a reflection of the viewer.
Toland and Jane at the Opening, May 21, 2010.
Please contact us for other available works
info@jsauergallery.com
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Toland Sand
Orientations
May 21 - June 14, 2010
Artist Reception
Friday, May 21, 5 -7 pm
Artist will be present
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In 1955 I had the opportunity to spend a month in Japan. The experience disoriented me, so to speak. Six years old, it was my first visit to another country. Since then, and especially during my childhood, with five years in Greece and two in Taiwan, my life has been a process of orienting myself in a world that didn't offer much tangibility but rather left me with an understanding of things bigger than myself and my own country and culture.
This body of work is an effort to orient myself in the world of glass sculpture. The artistic sensibilities I'm working with are broad and come from cultures I've experienced both first and second hand. They are also architectural and sculptural. They areoriental and occidental. Optical glass itself also requires an orientation, one of how it fits into a particular environment, how it's affected by that environment. Natural and artificial light affect how the sculpture feels, it's mood. It's a never static experience and requests a constant renewal of orientation. To me, optical glass is the medium that is most alive. It has transmission, refraction, and reflection. And I think it's emotionally alive as well, reflecting how each one of us is feeling that day. And almost always it adds a positivity to the sense of that particular day.
I owe my deconstructive aesthetic to having spent in Greece as a teenager. Ancient ruins were everywhere and I got used to seeing pieces of columns laying on the ground. It seemed natural in that time has it's natural affects. And it also represented the freedom of democracy, which was enhanced by the invention of the Greek alphabet. That freedom is also artistic freedom and so I feel an affection for those symbols of the beginnings of that liberation from tyranny, the beautiful and inspiring temples and statues that are the hallmarks of that civilization. Artistic and architectural freedom became the symbols of political freedom. And so the whole notion has inspired me to create my own symbols: to the idea of artistic exploration and orienting oneself and illuminating my subconscious impulses, making them conscious, and understanding what it is I like about certain colors and shapes.
So they all represent me, different aspects of me as I travel through ethereal and corporal space, seeking expression and beauty, the eternal and the temporal; all parts of reality, all expressions of the possible. The exploration. Internal and external.
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"BLUE ARCHIT"
Toland Sand
Glass
16" x 10" x 7"
$13,500
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A sculptural as well as architectural form, the constructivist sense of this piece plays to my love of angularity and the ability of glass to pull color and optics. It's also a deconstructed piece in that it has a sense of two pieces leaning one against the other, as if they were once one. That they're cantilevered and balanced on their corners lends a certain tension. The blue pigment and what it defines reminds me of the interior of a structure. It's optical glass as it's best.
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.........................................................................................................Detail
"CONFETTI PRESENCE"
Toland Sand
Glass
23" x 10" x 5"
$15,000
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A humanesque piece, it's my first effort at minimizing the coloration and overlapping them to create layers of color and reflection. Combining many pieces of leaded and optical crystal gives the piece a subtle center while relying on the optics and stick and circle design to create a certain elegance. The sandblasted design is carried further to the exterior of the piece as well as to the upper sections, creating an unusual lightness and liveliness. The energy is focused in the body of the piece and then given over to the innate quality of optical glass that reflects and relays images. To me it has Eastern and Western sensibilities.
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"SAMURAISQUE"
Toland Sand
Glass
27" x 12" x 3"
$24,000
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This is a sculptural piece inspired by samurai shields I've seen at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They're suspended to isolate their detail. I've taken it one step further and made it also an architectural piece while adding a human element. The top could be a vaulted roof or a helmet. The intricately cut dichroic and leaded glass center speaks to the heart of a warrior while the section below that is suggestive of the inner calmness and reserve of a samurai. It's a shield of honor, a homage to the inner and outer qualities of that culture. The stainless steel armature lends a fastness to the piece that bespeaks of incorruptibility and strength at the same time.
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LIGHT FORMS "EASTERN INCLINATION"
Toland Sand
Glass
19" x 10" x 5"
$12,000
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The sense of this piece is that it is vaguely Japanese inspired, with an architectural twist. The interior coloration is an envelope pusher and involved some very intricate glass cutting. The light blue glass towards the bottom is a piece of Asahi glass, made in Japan and having that screen element so prevalent in that milieu. It stand upright in an architectural sense with the cantilevered beam on top representing a playful tension that gives it a sense of it's own identity, yet retaining a certain Japaneseness.
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LIGHT FORMS "ISAMU'S GIFT"
Toland Sand
Glass
20" x 11" x 5"
$13,500
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An homage to my favorite sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, this piece has a human presence though it also retains it's shapeness. The blues give a colorful clarity to the structure. It seems to balance, as people do on their feet. The lenses are vaguely eye like. It's abstract sensibilities mimic what an artist might be, full of color and with a hat. The spinning base allows a full view of it's personality. Though it may not look like Noguchi's work, it's my take on the energy that I get from viewing his work: odd yet very profound, unique, and full of being.
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LIGHT FORMS "ORIENTED ROSE"
Toland Sand
Glass
19" x 10" x 5"
$13,500
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This piece is another architectural/humanesque piece which uses precarious balance as an interface between the two. Like a person on it's feet, with interior of heart and mind, it also has oriental sensibilities that you might find in Japanese pottery. Yet is also has a strong architectural presence. The rose color lends a softness and richness to the optics of the glass. The inner glass construction is a metaphor for humanity and also how we live in space. Another envelope pushing piece for me.
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LIGHT FORMS "TILTING PERSONA"
Toland Sand
Glass
19" x 8" x 3"
$12,000
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Humanesque, it reminds me of figures I've seen in the Orient, leaning forward, going somewhere with intention. I also think of it as architectural, with a cantilevered, vaulted roof. The interior colorations are staged like the interior of a building, as though flights of steps lead to the top. As a shape, it has the dynamic and tension that I like to put in my pieces. It has the drama, and the presence of a being.
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"HELIOPOLIS DEO II"
Toland Sand
Glass
18" x 18" x 18"
$38,000
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Another in my Isis Cube series, this is the largest piece I've made at 115 pounds. It measures 18" x 18" x 18" and is composed of leaded and non-leaded optical crystals with etched blue dichroic as the coloring agent on the interior cube. The 10” cube is cut in half and reassembled with a clear wedge between the two halves, in such a way as to achieve a balance that is accepted by a point and an edge. The dichroic features change color as they are spun on the freely rotating base. A piece of Corian acts as the interface between the glass and the anodized aluminum. Heliopolis means “City of Light” in Greek and “Deo” is Greek for “two,” as it's a further take on a previous piece. It's both architectural and sculptural, oriental and occidental.
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"LIGHT BASKET"
Toland Sand
Glass
14" x 12" x 3"
$16,000
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This piece is a tip of the hat to the Japanese aesthetic of the use of bamboo and stone or ceramic. The shape is vaguely basket like, with the obvious handle shape suspended above it. The complexity of dichroic and leaded glass is an acknowledgement of the high energy and chi which is ironically behind the simplicity and minimalism of the traditional Japanese aesthetic, which is represented by the clean and elegant sandblasting on the bottom of the piece. The spinning base give it additional three dimensionality and vantages. The first in the Orientations series, the playfullness and color captured what I was trying to emulate and express.
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"ISISPHERE DIDYMIUM"
Toland Sand
Glass
8" x 9" x 9"
$18,000
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A deconstructed sphere, this piece is similar in concept to the Isis Cube Series, and hence the name. isis was the Egyptian goddess of magic and simplicity. The magic of this piece is the colored dichroic and leaded glass interior, magnified by the sphericality of each half. The simplicity is the round shape, cut in half and reassembled with a clear disc between the two. It's more of a purely sculptural concept. The bottom is affixed to a circle of optical glass which fits into the recessed top of the spinning base.
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ISIS CUBE "ORIGAMI BLUES"
Toland Sand
Glass
7" x 7" x 9"
$8,500
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Another deconstructivist and architectural piece, it was originally a cube, which was cut in half and put back together with a clear optical wedge between the two halves. Designed to perch on one corner and one edge, the balance is the intention. Leaded and non-leaded optical glass combined with blue pigment create the interior cube, which is then wrapped with clear optical crystal. Ground to shape and finished by hand, Origami Blues reminds me of the angularity of origami and the way that the paper sculptures open up after they've been constructed. The spinning base is made of anodized aluminum and has a white Corian top that interfaces well with glass.
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"TRANSAXIS DICHROICUBE SMALL"
Toland Sand
Glass
7 1/2" x 7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
$6,500
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It's counter intuitive to see a cube spinning on one corner, especially one deconstructed by cutting it in half and reassembling it in such a way as to give the illusion that the inner cube is passing through a circle. The dichroic and leaded glass interior is bounced around by refraction and reflection, becoming minimal at times and then exploding with color as it rotates on the anodized aluminum base. A simple shape made complex by the ability to see inside it.
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"PARAGON CUBE"
Toland Sand
Glass
3 1/8" x 3 1/8" x 3 1/8"
$4,200
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A simple cube made complex by incorporating dichroic glass, leaded crystal, and optical crystal. Each of the layers of dichroic glass is sandblasted with a stick design in such a way as to allow one to see through it to the layer behind it, reflected the one behind off of the one in front. This creates an infinitely variable pattern of images, with the colors changing as readily as the views. The cube can be placed on any side and then spun on the rotating anodized aluminum base. It's a very interactive piece.
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....................................................................................................Details
"ROCKING BEAM" on display at the Inn at Loretto Hotel
Toland Sand
Glass
16" x 9" x 8"
$18,000
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"TETRAHEDRON"
Toland Sand
Glass
7" x 7" x 7"
$7,500
"ACROPOLE" 2008
Toland Sand
Glass
18" x 9" x 3 "
$18,000
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JANE SAUER GALLERY
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