John Kiley is a fourth generation Seattle native who attended The Pilchuck Glass School and the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.Kiley uses primary geometric forms as the architecture for his glass sculptures.
His Fractograph series takes a more conceptual approach to the material.
Different methods including impact and thermal shock are used to shatter a perfectly polished optic blocks.
The sometimes-powerful explosions are filmed in slow motion and exhibited along with the reconstructed blocks.
Kiley’s glass sculptures are an exploration of external and internal form: an expression of the relationship that exists between shape and light.
“I strive to create objects that push the material itself beyond its simple inherent beauty. When I look at a finished piece, it should be apparent to me that it could only exist in glass.”’ Kiley explains.
Kiley not only questions which is more beautiful — the whole or its parts, the inside or the outside, negative or positive space, the light, the shadow, or the reflection — but suggests that it is the interaction of all of these characteristics that results in the beautiful sum.
More of John Kiley‘s remarkable glassworks can be found at https://www.johnkiley.com/