Bombay Sapphire Blue Room

To Sunderland’s National Glass Centre to catch the gin-sponsored touring exhibition of cutting-edge glassmaking. Surreally, on the A19 we’re passed by Her Majesty, resplendent in turquoise duffel-coat, en route to a Jubilee engagement. ‘They’re all over there, that’s why we’re a bit quiet in here,’ explains an NGC minion. All the better to appreciate the Blue Room, a modest, odd and fascinating collection.

Amid blow-ups of the British Museum roof and suchlike stunts, the highlights are the pieces you can pick up in your hand; except, of course, you’re not allowed. And that’s the fabulous, aching contradiction of the medium. Lena Bergström’s bowls, for Orrefors, are as solid and fragile as melons, demanding to be hefted; they look as if they might fit together, but you daren’t find out. Jeffrey Bernet’s vessel for COVO fuses such narrow, perfect strata of blue and white, the danger in lifting it is that it might turn out not to be real. Chiho Hitomi’s curtain of linked keyrings is a conjuring trick endlessly repeated, mocking its uncomprehending audience.

We wander into a glass-blowing demonstration to see how it’s done. Almost completed, the form slips off the punty iron and shatters. There are red faces, but only from the furnace: seeing the miracle fail is the best inculcation we could ask for.

First published in ‘Twenty/20’, MacUser, 31 May 2002

Tagged as: Design, MacUser