Corning Museum of Glass Unveils 2013 Rakow Commission by Andrew Erdos

His over-the-top installations create a situation of sensory overload, which he sees as a reflection of everyday life in urban culture, especially the culture of New York City. Through the use of futuristic-looking mirrored animal sculptures, vehicles used by the artist to navigate identity and environment, Erdos explores the relationships between nature, technology, and people.

For the Rakow Commission, Erdos pushed the scale of his two-way mirrored boxes with mirrored and dichroic glass sculptures and colored murrine to create an overwhelming sensory experience, a setting of hyper-beauty. “When all your senses are activated is oftentimes when there is a moment of clarity,” says Erdos. The titles of Erdos’ works often reference ghosts and time, which he considers to be core fascinations of humans as physically intangible but always present entities and emanations.

“I try to engage artists whose works are of superior intellectual and/or technical quality, and which transcend the traditional boundaries of glassworking for the Rakow Commission. Erdos uses traditional glassblowing techniques, and well-known glass effects such as the infinity mirror, to create nontraditional environments and narratives,” says Tina Oldknow, curator of modern glass at the Museum.

Hear from Erdos on the making of Ghost Walk under Infinite Darkness and read a conversation between Erdos and Tina Oldknow at www.cmog.org/erdos.

Inaugurated in 1986, the Rakow Commission is awarded annually to artists whose work is not yet represented in the Museum's collection. The commission supports new works of art in glass by encouraging emerging or established artists to venture into new areas that they might otherwise be unable to explore because of financial limitations. It is made possible through the generosity of the late Dr. and Mrs. Leonard S. Rakow, Fellows, friends, and benefactors of the Museum. Each commissioned work is added to the Museum’s permanent collection and is displayed publicly in the Museum’s Modern Glass Gallery.

About The Corning Museum of Glass

The Corning Museum of Glass is home to the world’s most important collection of glass, including the finest examples of glassmaking spanning 3,500 years. Live glassblowing demonstrations (offered at the Museum, on the road, and at sea on Celebrity Cruises) bring the material to life. Daily Make Your Own Glass experiences at the Museum enable visitors to create work in a state-of-the-art glassmaking studio. The campus in Corning includes a year-round glassmaking school, The Studio, and the Rakow Research Library, the world’s preeminent collection of materials on the art and history of glass. Located in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State, the Museum is open daily, year-round. Kids and teens, 19 and under, receive free admission. www.cmog.org.

The Museum is currently adding a North Wing, designed by Thomas Phifer, which will open in late 2014. The 100,000-square-foot North Wing addition will include a new 26,000-square-foot contemporary art gallery building, as well as one of the world’s largest facilities for glassblowing demonstrations and live glass design sessions.