IN LOVE WITH GLASS
Taru Syrjänen
Glass...
Bright as the
shining sun
Dark as the depth
of the night
Surprising as the river’s route
Ever-changing as the colours of the sea’s horizon
Unbendable as the will of the wind
Everlasting as the ice in the comets’s heart.”
These poetic words describe the material that glass artist Taru
Syrjänen uses in her works. She turns hot, 1200 °C,
red-glowing
mass into the works of art. Glass is rich but selfish material, you
must respect its will. Only skill, enthusiasm and seamless co-operation
with glassblower can halt glass into the form artist requests. To make
newly created works last, their temperature must be slowly and
gradually lowered toward room-temperature. This may take even several
days. Otherwise the work will crack before it gets out of the factory
door.
Taru was directed into arts at a young age. She began her
art studies in Kankaanpää Art School 1972 together
with her identical twin sister, ceramic artist Satu Syrjänen. In
the beginning Taru’s material was also ceramics, but some years
later another material, glass, took her heart. She made her first glass
design works for Humppila glass factory in 1981. Designer’s job was
free, but it had a strict aim: To create attractive, production-ready
designs. During that period Taru created e.g. “Tarusto”-tableware range
and “Kannel” -vase.
A passion to know every possible thing from glass took Taru 1982 to
Great Britain, to West Surrey College of Art and Design. At that
time, in Finland, there was no similar education combining the
practical glass making techniques with glass art and design. Taru
graduated in 1986 with BA (hons.). During her stay in England, Nordic
style, sometimes described ascetic and isolated, broadened in her
expression. This can be seen in Taru’s works even today. Examples of
her works from those years in England are cast “Shadow” and “Hand bag”,
and variations of blown oval shape. “Sails”-vase, which
gained popularity later, got also its inspiration from the time she
spent
in the London Maritime Museum.
When Taru came back to Finland in 1986, she worked as a
freelance designer for Nuutajärvi glass factory. “Colorado” and
“Harmony” -vases and “Kaisla” pressed-glass tableware-series went into
production there. Now also the early “Sails” -motif was turned into the
practical design, that went into production. It was later selected to
the sales
collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art.
In 1998, Iittala glass factory asked Taru to become their full time
designer. Best known works in production from this period are “Delta”
and “Nile” -vases. To the united Iittala/Nuutajärvi factory’s
exhibition in Stockholm, Taru participated with “Roundabout of
the life” -theme, which showed the direction to the future, in the form
of larger
and more sculptural, unique works. Central works in this exhibition
were
“Worldwheel”, and the series named after seasons. The “Summer” was
recognized internationally. It was selected into The International
Design yearbook.
In 1991, practically the whole Finnish glass industry was transferred
to Hackman group. In the following year Taru made a large exhibition
to Finnish Glass Museum. It introduced glass sculptures associated into
planets, and “Stone lily” -works, which were like modern, urban
versions of amphorae.
Taru’s desire for independence, without the burden of profit and
production requirements in designs, led her to establish her own glass
studio in 1995. After that, Taru’s works have still been blown by
Master
Glass
Blowers in Nuutajärvi, but she has done the design work in her
own studio in Tampere.
The “Strata” -exhibition in 1998, which she made for Häme
Historical Museum in Tampere, went back to the roots of our culture.
Historical, archaeological and palaeontological motifs were transferred
into glass. Multipart installation “Glasshenge”, together with a mystic
and monotonous sound-drop, influenced today’s human being with its
primitive power. Cast-and-cut “Ice findings”-works associated back to
the time before human race appeared on the earth.
Large and noble amphorae reflected the search of perfect beauty and
refinement of classical forms. “Diversus” hypnotized with its dynamics,
“Virgo” charmed with its opaliscue beauty, and “Apollo” was like a
masculine form of an amphora.
“Strata II” -exhibition in The Museum of Art and Design in
Helsinki in 1999 continued in the same theme.
Between the exhibitions Taru’s passion for an adventure and experiments
took her into the small glassfactory in Crete, to work with old style
free-of-moulds glass blower masters.
“Glass garden” -exhibition in the spring 2000, in the winter garden
of Tampere-talo, challenged Taru to create her own colour-rich glass
garden. Free-blown “Flora” -works were inspired by the power of
blossoming spring flowers. “Evolution” -filigree-works, made of freely
opened glass,
described the dynamics of the nature. Earlier introduced “Spaceboat”
-series got now continuation in the form of new works, that now
symbolized
green-rooms closing complete ecosystems inside their bodies.
Timo-Olavi
Jalkanen
