Educational Media Reviews Online

The Art Glass Wall documents a specialized art making process. Artisans at the Wallach glass studio work with Gensler and Associates, an architecture firm, to craft fifty-six panels of carved glass which will adorn the wall of the First Hawaiian Bank's corporate headquarters in Honolulu. Upon completion, each panel features a botanical illustration and is held in place by polished steel brackets. The entire window, lit by fiber optics, creates the effect of an illuminated garden. Aside from the beauty of the finished glass wall, viewers will appreciate the artists' efforts and teamwork. Above all, art students will appreciate how this video outlines the detailed process of glass carving, step by step. Viewers witness how artists create technically correct drawings, then carefully carve out stencil resists which they place onto glass panels. The next step is fascinating: the artist moves the panel to an easel inside a sandblasting booth where she aims a nozzle, like an airbrush, at the exposed portions of glass, gently wearing away the surface. This process is repeated several times, with successively larger areas of glass exposed. Those areas that are exposed for the longest period of time become deep valleys that appear to project outward when viewed from the panel's glossy front side. When the sandblasting is finished, the resist is peeled away, revealing lovely renderings of lilies, fern fronds, and other plants. Finally, Bill Anderson of Advantage Technology contributes the fiber optic lighting, and the panels are shipped to the bank where the glass wall is splendidly mounted.

This video does an excellent job of showing the viewer how the process works. One discovers not only how the piece is created, but also how artists and architects can collaborate. A gentle soundtrack composed by Peter Chang enhances the learning experience. The Art Glass Wall will interest a narrow audience, specifically studio art majors at the college or high school level, but it will serve these students well. Nothing else like it is available on the market except for a video, which also deals with sandblasting glass, called Learn the Art of Air Erasing, from Video Educational Arts Systems, Inc. (1989). This video discusses the application of sandblasting to a crystal wineglass. The Art Glass Wall is unique in documenting glass panel carving. Recommended.