Pieces of glass that reflect different faces of art

There is something bewitchingly enticing about glass – its poignant and wistful fragility perhaps? Its ability to mould and yet be unrelenting – breaking rather than going against its grain? Or is it its unreasonableness as it were? These questions often plague me when I look at any beautiful piece of glass. My Mamu – maternal uncle, trained at being a glass blower way back in the 1960s in Germany and The Netherlands and family lore made it even more exciting and small pieces that he had created are treasured heirlooms. I too have a couple.

My quest for glass has taken me to many centers of glass but Murano near Venice and closer home, Firozabad near Agra hold a special place. Chuilly glass in America is majorly on the wish list. I have hand carried long stemmed glass flowers all the way from Murano following being smitten by glass tulips! Like many women, I too have lusted for and swooned over glass jewelry in posh boutiques of St Mark’s Square in Venice! But couldn’t acquire all that I lusted for – oh ho! Yeh lack of moolah bhi na!

In the late 80s I used to hate the polluted dusty ride from Agra to Firozabad in a jeep, but so heady was the lure of seeing glass take shape virtually in front of me that I refused to let it bother me. I have sat in dingy, whirring workshops of Firozabad getting glass cut to my specifications and designs on several occasions. Getting the exact shade of bangles in my designs was a feeling that I can never forget it. I even got tiny figurines made in glass right in front of me and playfully got made glass toffees and glass fish and other ocean stuff like shells etc that I still have!

Contrary to popular belief, apart from Firozabad, India used to have two important historical places known for glass: Arikamedu near Puduchery or Pondichery. This was one of the earliest ports from were trade was conducted with the Romans from 2nd century BC onwards. Later the French also started trading from here. The place was famous for its vibrantly hued glass beads. I remember one particular time I saw very steeply priced but longingly beautiful glass beads strung on a silver chain like rings in Switzerland and couldn’t help be reminded of Indian glass beads that abound.  

Second was Kapadvanch in Gujarat, which was a centre of essentially glass mirror production from the Mughal period until recent times. A few pieces can still be found in old homes. They used to create vibrant coloured glass mirrors in multiple hues that were the rage for centuries and used in varying quantities by both the rich and the poor. While the poor embedded the attractive coloured mirrors into their wall paintings, used them as part of embroidery on cloth as embellishing the “decorative” element, the rich used it in small pieces to create geometric patterns in coloured mirrors in their havelis. Kapadvanch also functioned a crafts centre and produced glass bottomed hookahs, chandeliers and small time glass fixtures.   

Firozabad is still the one stop town for glass bangles almost through the entire sub-continent, glass table ware of different types, chandeliers and large quantities of blown productions used in the lighting industry including bulbs of different sorts. Cheap Chinese goods have hit them rather badly but the smarter factories have moved to other items.

With all these glass tales tucked away in the crannies of my heart I went to see Parsing – The Mind’s Eye, an exhibition by Vijay Kowshik, the senior-most glass sculptor of the country who is able to work in different type of techniques like blown glass, fused glass, slumped glass, moulded glass, casting glass, flame worked glass and stained glass to create some incredible pieces. His glass works have also imbibed techniques like kiln and sand casting too.

Born in a family of artists, Vijay Kowshik has had a basic grounding in art thanks to his parents Pushpa and Prof Dinkar Kowshik. Apart from them he had various masters as mentors like B.C. Sanyal, K.S.Kulkarni, Biren De, Jaya Appassamy and later Masters like Ram Kinkerand Sharbari Roy Choudhary. I feel, creativity, innovation and thinking out of the box are his biggest strengths and an ingrained attitude he follows for all creative work. His initial forays were in ceramics and subsequently he worked in glass techniques in France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden, USA, Japan etc.

The exhibition delves into the mind of the artist with expressions thrown from his “agitated psyche striving to extract experiences from the collective consciousness.” The medium of expression is ceramic in which glass is his main motivation. The works juxtapose the feelings of the artist through the plasticity of the material at high temperatures. The amalgamation evokes a strange quality of thrill and joy in the making, which manifests itself finally in the works.

The play of light through glass with refractions and reflections give a strange mysterious quality to the works. A whole section of masks that we all wear at various points are his latest works and too find place in the show. I came away mesmerized with a pair of musical glass sculptures that work on touch to create beautiful musical notes.

There are just a handful of artists working in glass in India despite our long heritage and the reasons are not far to seek: Basic non-availability of infrastructure and disinterest of industry in creating glass works. I should know – having firsthand experience of Firozabad. I feel there is a lot of Murano like tourism potential in Firozabad considering its proximity to Agra. Is any tourism honcho listening? But one thing that fills me with glee for the moment is that Vijay has promised to teach me glass sculpture and who knows, I actually might come up a work I can be proud of!  
Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com