René Roubíček
THE MARTIAN
The doyen of Czech
glassmaking, Roubíček
created a hand-blown
alien figure, glowing green
thanks to a drop of uraniumStanislav Müller
MANABI MONSTERS
Czech glass artist Müller’s
Japanese-influenced monsters
are cut from blocks of optical
glass, their parts ground,
polished and then assembledne minute: that’s how long it takes
to create a monster. ‘I don’t recall ever being fearful
of monsters as a child, so my design is childishly
simple: I started with a doodle,’ says Dutch designer
Maarten Baas, one of 16 creatives asked to think
monstrous by the Czech glass manufacturer Lasvit.
Transforming those dark imaginings into Bohemian
glass, however, has taken almost two years. The project
will inally be unveiled at Salone del Mobile in Milan’s
Teatro Gerolamo, a neoclassical puppet theatre.
Conceived by creative design strategist Stephan
Hamel and Lasvit founder Leon Jakimič, the project
has delivered a diverse family of monsters, from a
mirror encrusted with googly eyes by the Paris-based
couturier Maurizio Galante to a menacing stained-glass
portrait by octogenarian artist Vladimír Kopecký. Eight
of the pieces will be limited editions, Kopecký’s will
be a one-of, while others will be more widely available.
All form the Lasvit Monster collection, which will be
updated each year with contributions from new artists.
‘Every culture and individual perceives the concept
of “monster” diferently,’ says Jakimič. ‘They frighten
us, but also open up our minds, reminding us of our own
limitations and inner fears. The question of what a
monster really is becomes real through these artworks.’
The pieces, made in four of Lasvit’s workshops
in the Czech Republic, employed both traditional and
groundbreaking techniques including hand-blown,
cast, fused and cut glass. Some pieces were even made
using uranium, which adds a unique gleaming green.
‘It’s not radioactive,’ Jakimič laughs, ‘but we asked
someone from the atomic agency to literally add one
drop to the molten glass to create the efect.’
Daniel Libeskind’s ofering called for a complex
process, adding glass chips into a mould, increasing its
temperature by a few degrees every day over a few
months before cooling it down at a similarly gradual
pace. ‘As an architect, I always start to design with a
drawing,’ says Libeskind. ‘But in this case, I sat down at
a table with a bucket of clay and a kitchen knife. And
I just began to sculpt.’ To translate the clay monsters
into glass, ‘we used a super-sophisticated Bohemian
technique invented during socialism’, says Jakimič.
‘It’s the irst time we’ve used it for a product.’ It gives
the pieces an unusual luminosity and a colour that
changes depending on the light.
Glass artist Stanislav Müller also pushed the
boundaries, exploring the properties of optical glass
with his geometric monster. ‘Production must be
perfect,’ he explains. ‘Each piece of glass is cut by hand
from one block of optical glass to avoid unwanted
refraction.’ The artist engraved and ground details
onto the faces. ‘It looks simple, but was a challenge.’ »∑ 165
O
Salone del Mobile