Don MacLennan and Cali Balles - Statement
Don MacLennan and Cali Balles have collaborated to create “Shadows”, an installation of
multiple blown glass light sculptures. The forms, free and organic in nature, take on an anthropomorphic
quality. The variety of size and mass of the individual forms alludes to the wide diversity of the inhabitants
of the city. The large scale, free blown forms are worked in clear glass and then sandblasted to create
a room of multiple soft, shadowy figures. MacLennan and Balles made each piece from their shared hotshop
space. The still malleable forms were passed back and forth between the two glass artists, each imprinting
them with the decisions of the making process. Playing with scale and sharing a more intimate process
of construction; the makers found that the nature of the forms determined the installation in the form
of social groupings or communities. Each piece is individually signed and independently serve as a functional
light that varies from it’s neighbour.
Don MacLennan completed studies in Urban Planning before graduating from the Crafts and Design program
at Sheridan College. He has exhibited extensively across Canada.
Cali Balles a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, Material Art and design program,
studied glass at Sheridan College of Crafts and Design glass blowing and kilnworking studio classes at
Sheridan College of Crafts and Design. She has received numerous awards and grants from her earliest
student days to the present. She has exhibited across Canada and the US with work held in private collections
in Canada and Japan.
Shadows
multiple blown glass light sculptures
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