Old Venetian Glass
Artist: Kim Harty (American, born 1983)
Date: 2013
Dimensions:
47 3/4 × 54 1/4 in. (121.3 × 137.8 cm)
Medium: Framed digital print
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Winthrop H. Perry Fund
Object number: 2020.3
Label Text:Old Venetian Glass and Plate 44 envision the gap between a historical object and the memory of that object. A glassblower by training, Kim Harty created a “performance” of 72 light drawings made with gestures in the air with a light source, captured via slow-exposure photography. The light drawings represent 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century Venetian vessels taken from a 1960 book, Old Venetian Glass. In the photograph Old Venetian Glass, all 72 vessels are represented, drawn over-sized, with Harty appearing behind each glass form. Corresponding parts of each vessel—aptly named the lip, neck, waist, and foot—overlay Harty, connecting inanimate object and the human body.
These photographs extend the ephemeral theatrical experience of Harty’s performance into a final visual product. The viewer does not have to rely on their own memory to recall the performance. Instead, Harty literally acts as the memory device—a memoria technica—as she creates these light drawings that are made in total darkness and from memory. In the attempt to produce replicas in light, Harty displays the limits of memory, calling our attention to what is lost in both recollection and material reality when recreating a historical object.
These photographs extend the ephemeral theatrical experience of Harty’s performance into a final visual product. The viewer does not have to rely on their own memory to recall the performance. Instead, Harty literally acts as the memory device—a memoria technica—as she creates these light drawings that are made in total darkness and from memory. In the attempt to produce replicas in light, Harty displays the limits of memory, calling our attention to what is lost in both recollection and material reality when recreating a historical object.
DescriptionSingle image composed of 72 self-portraits of the artist; in each portrait, the artist composes a light-drawing of a glass vessel.
Not on view