OPTICAL ALLUSIONS

Suresh Dutt’s glass sculptures use complex geometries to explore abstract qualities.

If you are blessed with abundant originality, narrow definitions of what you do and why can sometimes seem irrelevant. ‘I don’t consider myself a glass artist or a glass designer,’ says Suresh Dutt. ‘I find both terms too restrictive. Glass is a medium where I can exploit both my art and design knowledge.

Born in Bedford in 1974, Dutt is one of the most exciting new voices to emerge on the British glass scene over the last few years. Working in a rigorous abstract idiom that he calls ‘pure and honest’, he creates intriguing blown forms, some curvilinear and organic, such as the ridged vessel Device; others geometric and prismatic, such as the solid Block series. Many pieces have multi-layered internal colouring, partly transparent, partly opaque. ‘I use layers of colour as a structure rather than just as decoration,’ he observes. Dutt’s primary interest is in investigating optical effects.

Cutting and polishing bring his pieces alive, creating peepholes into the void, or slicing though a monochrome shell to reveal rich agate-like strata below. ‘Most of my work is based on experiments with colour, form and light,’ he explains. ‘I deconstruct functional objects into dysfunctional forms. I use cutting and polishing to achieve the qualities I want from the glass, either to expose transitional spaces and hidden forms, or to affect the distribution of weight, visual density and quality of light.’

The Crafts Council was the first to recognize his potential, selecting him for their One Year On exhibition in 2001, followed by a Next Move Award in 2002, two years after he graduated from B.C.U.C. Dutt’s talents were also singled out by dealer Adrian Sassoon, who selected him as the recipient of his prestigious Art of the Kiln Award in 2003. Glass connoisseur Dan Klein added his seal of approval this year by including Dutt’s work in the exhibition 21st Century British Glass.

Most designers do not reach creative maturity until postgraduate level or beyond, particularly in the technically demanding field of glass, but Dutt was a precocious undergraduate. ‘My first experience of glass was simple slumping and fusing in a ceramics kiln during my art foundation course. I layered basic window glass into open refractory and two-part moulds, then experimented with programmes and annealing times,’ he recalls. ‘I learnt to blow glass at evening classes in the second year of my Three Dimensional Design course. This eventually led me to transfer to the Ceramics and Glass BA, where I completed my degree.’

Dutt’s approach to design has been strongly influenced by the Bauhaus theories he was exposed to on his foundation course. ‘Composition, proportion, perspective, function, colour and observation still form an integral part of my work,’ he says. ‘My practice spans all the various disciplines of art, craft and design. I distil the most appropriate concepts and techniques in the development of my work, using pure aesthetics rather than function or narrative.’

At present Dutt only produces about ten pieces a year, the majority of which are snapped up by private collectors and museums. The reason for this is the sheer complexity of his work, which requires elaborate advance planning, extensive experimentation and prototyping. He frequently consults other specialists along the way, including architectural glass makers and material technicians. Making the pieces is a two-stage process requiring meticulous orchestration: ‘Owing to the forms I design, the techniques are far too advanced for me to blow my own glass, so I use the skills of experienced studio and production glassblowers, directing and controlling the operation throughout.’ The choice of blower depends on the techniques required, which range from Swedish graal and overlay to Italian canework or incalmo.

Dutt himself then takes over at the cold finishing stage: ‘My speciality is glass cutting and polishing, using specific machines and tools to polish the cut surface back to a high-shine finish. The cutting process mainly involves slowly grinding away excess material to expose hidden aspects and negative spaces. The polishing process enables me to determine the amount and quality of light entering the glass, thereby controlling the dispersion.’ ‘I’d prefer to produce more work each year,’ admits Dutt, ‘but as every new piece becomes larger in scale and is constructed out of many more modular pieces, I have less time to make new work.’ Yet however laborious the processes might be, he is fully committed to this way of working.

It is only through high-level technical complexity and minute attention to detail that he is able to produce the results he desires. ‘Glass is a unique material,’ he enthuses. ‘By exploiting its inherent qualities and limitations, I can subvert its conventional position as a material for functional objects. By manipulating blown glass to produce unique forms, and by harnessing the properties of the material to reveal transparency, reflection and refraction, I can expose more subtle and abstract qualities, such as containment and suspension.’ Complex words for complex work.

Lesley Jackson

First published in Crafts Magazine 2005