With the participation of 18 international glass artists, British artist Erin Dickson examines ideas of national identity across borders through the Chinese Whispers exhibition.
Erin’s latest body of work builds upon the concept of the childhood game Chinese Whispers, also known as Telephone, in which a group of children stand in a circle and pass a message around by whispering it to the person next to them. The last person says the message out loud, by which point it has usually changed beyond recognition.
The concept originated from a trip that Erin took to Murano, Italy. An ancestral home of glass making, with a long tradition of glass blowing stemming from 1291 when the glassmakers of Venice were forced to move to Murano due to the risk of fires.
Erin, who studied Glass and Ceramics with the University of Sunderland obtaining an MA in Glass and Ceramics in 2010 and a PhD in 2015. Erin received support from the Devlopment Office Futures Fund whilst studying at the University and was awarded an Opportunity Scholarship and a Graduate Development Scholarship to support her studies. Erin had been visiting Berengo Studio, where she had been working with Venetian maestro Silvano Signoretto. Using only a verbal description, Erin, who can’t speak Italian, asked Silvano, who can’t speak English, to recreate a glass vase that she had seen in the Venice Glass Museum, thus sparking an idea which led to the concept of Chinese Whispers.
Erin requested a 100 word description of the craft process from Silvano, which was then translated into English using Google Translate. Silvano’s instructions were technically brief and gave the next artist, James Devereux from Devereux Huskie Glassworks in Wiltshire, very little to suggest the Venetian style of the vase. James created his own interpretation based on Silvano’s translated instructions. Using his own intuition and understanding of glassblowing James created a tall elegant vessel with a similar base, but apart from two fish handles, none of the original Venetian decorative finishes were included as they were not mentioned in the translation. James then created his own set of instructions which were translated and sent on to the next glassblower, Hyunsung Cho in South Korea.
From here the pattern repeated itself and was sent onto Sibusiso Mhlanga, Swaziland; De La Torre Brothers, México; Rasmus Nossbring, Sweden; Zuheir Alkazzaz, Netherlands ; Mia Lerssi, Denmark; Jing Li, China; Nadège Desgenétez, Australia ; Petr and Ondrej Novotny, Czech Republic; Bevan Taka , Sweden ; Kelly O’Dell, USA; Christina Hellevik and Leif Møller Nielsen , Denmark. Completing its intercontinental journey back in the UK with James Maskrey at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland.
The project has been inspired by the migration of traditional glass making skills and people around the globe. The collaborative nature of the project also highlights how difficult it is to communicate through text alone, which has caused dramatically varied interpretations of the original instructions given by Silvano Signoretto in Murano.
Erin has been invited to exhibit the Chinese Whispers collection as part of a collaboration between seven Danish art museums, ‘From Where We Stand – 7 Exhibitions on National Identity’; Randers Kunstmuseum, Horsens Kunstmuseum, Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Skovgaard Museet in Viborg, Museet for Religiøs Kunst in Lemvig, Skive Museum and Glasmuseet Ebeltoft.
The exhibition is open from 12th October 2019 to 22nd March 2020.
