Tension, the scent of roses, and the glow of neon flash through the shimmer curtains. The reality on which red and white lights shine is deliberately hidden and uncovered at the same time. The sight through the window is blurred by the moving curtain, disrupting the feeling of intimacy, peace and security.
The Caution: Contents Hot! exhibition space has been deliberately conceived as a room with its own rhythm and specific atmosphere. Feelings of danger, internal tension, mutability, transience and intimacy are interpreted by visual means. There is tension arising among the artworks, visitors, their thoughts and feelings. The spectators thus find themselves in a space with an atmosphere different from the ambient environment as well as from the traditional museum space.
Both Vendulka Prchalová and Helena Todd have been working with glass for a long time in an unconventional way, combining it with other materials and media, thus violating the rather limited material-specific environments. The exhibition bears impact of reflections on materials and creative processes, their variability and continuity. Here, the process merges with its result, and finiteness with constant continuity. New objects and installations are determined, to a certain extent, by the previous experience, which is experimentally followed in the creation of further works. The process becomes an indispensable starting point and new works are its extension.
Vendulka Prchalová combines traditional craftsmanship with contemporary artistic approaches and new technologies (3D-printing, her own glass-processing technology, etc.). She complements glass installations and objects with untypical materials (e.g., kiln cast glass with calligraphic ink), thus emphasizing the process and transformation of artworks over time.
Helena Todd creates functional objects and art installations in which she experimentally combines glass with other materials (fabric, metal etc.). The resulting works are unique by their unconventional structures and atypical glass shapes. In addition to design, she is keen on making jewellery, concept clothing and cross-media possibilities of their presentation.
Alena Štěrbová is a curator and an art historian. She focuses on design and contemporary art and their communicating to the general public. She also critically examines the possibilities of presenting glass works of art inside and outside their material-specific context. She currently works for the Education Department of the National Gallery in Prague, where she is responsible for programs for the public.
