Alison Kinnaird
Wheel engraving is often seen as a rather old fashioned technique, and certainly as one which is small scale and intimate. The technique itself has hardly changed since Roman times. I feel that a technique, which has lasted as long as this, must have something special to offer, in recent year I have been developing pieces, which use a combination of sandblast, and wheel engraving to produce a looser and more impressionistic style of engraving, while keeping the jewel-like character of wheel engraved modelling. I also layer panels of optical glass, which can increase the scale, resulting in installations of up to 10 metres in length.
The introduction of optical fibre or LED lighting has made it possible for me simultaneously to illuminate and colour the engravings. The brilliant glowing colours make it possible to virtually ‘paint’ with the light. Programming the LEDs opens new possibilities of change within the work.
Combining an ancient technique with a new technology has ever widening artistic potential as it leads in new and exciting directions.
Born 1949 Edinburgh, UK
Education
1970-71 Edinburgh College of Art
1969 Workshop training with Harold Gordon
1968-1971 Edinburgh University M A in Celtic Studies and Archaeology
Selected awards
2004 Glass Sellers Award
2002 Creative Scotland Award
2001 Adrian Sassoon Award
1998 CC Chelsea First Exhibitors Award
Inches Carr Crafts Bursary
Selected group exhibitions
2007 The Cutting Edge, Royal Museums Of Scotland
2006 British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark
Coburg Glaspreis Exhibition
2005 21st Century British Glass, London
2004 Psalmsong, V&A London Museum, London
Edinburgh Festival, Scottish Gallery
British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge
2002 Nine by Nine, Glass Art Gallery, London
Clearly Inspired, Cork St, London
Aldeburgh Festival
Art for Europe, Brussels
2001 Art Glass Gallery, Santa Fe
2000 Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Selected solo exhibitions
2007 Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1988 Coleridge, London
Selected commissions
2007 Installation for Hotel Murano, Tacoma
2006 Butterfly Panels, Marchmont St Giles Church, Edinburgh
2003 Portrait for National Portrait Gallery of Scotland
Window, Dornoch Cathedral
2000 Millenium Commission, Broadfield House Glass Museum
1990 Gift for his Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince of Japan, commissioned by Royal Bank of Scotland
Gift for HM The Queen Mother, commissioned by Royal College of Physicians
Selected collections
Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
Tutsek Foundation, Munich
Dundee Museum & Art Gallery
Corning Museum of Glass, New York, USA
Selected recent publications
2006 Neues Glas
2004-2005 Guild of Glass Engravers Newsletter
Dan Klein, Contemporary Glass Society Newsletter
2003 New Glass Review
ennifer Hawkins Opie, Contemporary International Glass, V & A Pub.
2002 Dan Klein, ARTISTS IN GLASS, Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass, Mitchell Beazley
2001 Liz Hoggard, CRAFTS, July/August