36 • Glass Art TM • May/June 2016 http://www.GlassArtMagazine.comAdapting Material to Environment
Architectural cast glass was very new in the glass art community
in 1992 when Gordinier made his first big casting. Having gained
entry into the architectural bidding process only sharpened his
focus on the challenges that had to be solved as the material met
the environment.
Gordinier’s process for mold building, stacking a glass com-
position, and producing a casting produces a top surface that is
slick, smooth, shiny, and highly colorful. On the bottom, where the
glass touched the casting paper, it has a fine texture that feels like
220-grit sandpaper and is “just awful.” Gordinier takes the glass
to a polishing room where he uses a series of wet diamond and
carbide polishing discs to finish the piece, mowing down the tops
of the peaks that cover the bottom surface. “The result feels like
silk and you can’t scratch it. Molded glass will mar easily unless
this bottom surface is the top of the piece, so I want this surface up
all the time. My polishing techniques produce clear windows that
allow the viewer to look deeply into the glass, even as it remains
completely functional.”
Gordinier likes the aesthetic as well as the strength of thicker
glass. “Thicker glass invites you to look more deeply inside the
piece and to continually see new things as light strikes it differently.
Thickness is an essential element of the aesthetic.” The weight does,
of course, pose its own challenge. “You have to be smarter than the
weight. If I make a 250-pound painting, I have to learn what the
wall is made of and how it is built. I may have to strengthen the
studding of the wall. For private settings, I build customized brackets
to distribute the weight so that a wall can support my piece.”
The artist must look beyond his own creation in an architectural
design to consider the larger environmental context that the artwork
will occupy. “When I make glass to be intrinsically woven into a
large wall, I get the architectural and engineering plans for the area
where the work will be displayed and figure out what is needed.
Together the architects, engineers, general contractors, and I work
out whether the glass will stand in recessed coffers or require cus-
tom lighting to highlight particular features. We work together to
address structural integrity.”Walter Gordinier,
Fragile Passage,
two stories of
stairs, landings,
and ramps, 2010.
Private, Washington.Walter Gordinier,
Sticks and Stones,
Cast Glass Carpet –
A Ceiling From Below,
3 ' x 12' x 1-1/2",- Private, Montana.