Inspired by Mexico’s rich glass works tradition, Mexico City-based artist Valeria Florescano translates that legacy into modern home accessories, jewelry and installations. Florescano shares some of her favorite projects – and the creative rationales behind them – with us below.
Valeria Florescano has been awarded scholarships for Pilchuck School of Glass, Corning Museum of Glass, and Penland Arts and Crafts School. She is an active member of the Board of the School of Design at Universidad Anáhuac, México.
She has shown in galleries and museums in Mexico and abroad in the Netherlands, the United States, Japan and Ukraine. Her glass work is part of the Vitro Glass Collection in Monterrey, N.L. Mexico, and the National Museum of Lviv in Ukraine.
Florescano is currently working in the notable glass factory Nouvel in Mexico city while completing an MFA in sculpture at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the National University of México, UNAM.
Enjoy!
above: “Bulbs,” made of recycled glass. Technique: blown glass into optic mold. Length: 17cms. Width: 6 cms. (At the widest part), mouth ø: 2 cms. According to Florescano: “It was my intention to reverse the flower vase idea. The ‘bulbs’ function as glass flowers, and therefore become the prominent object to contemplate. This design enhances the stem. The ‘bulbs’ are unifleur vases designed for soft stem flowers like the calla lily, tulips, daffodil, agapanthus, or the African lily. The idea was that the stem would fit perfectly into the hole and work as a cork, thus preventing the water inside from spilling. The design lets you use them horizontally and vertically, or to place them as sculptures in an upside down position. When used as unifleurs without a vase, the ‘bulbs’ can play with gravity. They can be held together from the stem with a knot so the bulbs settle in balance forming an architectural like structure.”
above: The Mangle Unifleur are a set of vases made in borosilicate glass, available in three sizes.
above: Manita rings. Technique: found object, wax casted in Silver .925 . Says Florescano: “This ring has a sense of romanticism. It also reminds me of Kahlo´s finger pieces. It can be used as a pendant, while it is reminiscent of antique door knobs, but the ring actually has movement. When you place it on your finger, the hand rests in your own, in a caressing gesture.”
above: Sol-O rings. Technique: Silver .925 and goldleaf. “This ring is based in the circular form. Both the wire and the sheet of metal started as a circle, and only with a simple twist and a cut we obtain this strong form,” says Florescano.
above: The Tehuana Goblet Technique: Installation with hand blown venetian pieces and video performance. Explains Florescano: “In the frame of the Tehuana Goblet exhibit held in … Oaxaca this past summer, I presented works that refer [simultaneously] to the garment of the isthmus and to blown glass, particularly the style known as Verre à la façon de Venise…
“Both practices share parallel processes and circumstances; therefore, the exhibition allows me the opportunity to work with certain ideas and concepts of interest in regard to the historical trajectory of objects, their development from a natural state passing through an utilitarian condition (from which its subsistence depends) into a higher degree of sophistication in usage.
“The geographical conditions of the isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Venetian archipielago site are both zones in the crossroads of the old commercial routes between east and west of their respective continents. This particularity has been translated into various aspects of cultural richness and hybridization where habits, beliefs and needs expanded the expressive local languages. Today, it is [important] to revisit these cultural wonders in order to think carefully [about] the skills and shortages of our present. Therefore, trying to approach and strengthen different fields of knowledge, Tehuana Goblet presents itself as a container of ideas on identity, ritual, richness and seduction.”
*All images courtesy of the artist.
