Tanya Lyons
To explore and reflect the changes we experience, I made four life size cloaks out of stainless steel mesh, glass and mixed materials. Together they represent the cycles and changes we go through, then individually they go deeper into different types of change. The first cloak is closed, representing hibernation, winter, light and dark, endings and beginnings. The second cloak is starting to open, representing growth, spring, change in colour and transformation. The third cloak is wide open representing freedom, summer, exposing, full colour and beauty with a wild richness. The fourth cloak is starting to close, reflecting a fading after the blaze, fall, change in colour, a heaviness setting in, but also a lightness. To explore the changes we go through, I chose the cloak form as an outer layer, giving shelter and protection to the human form. I then used various hot, warm and cold glass techniques, and the qualities of the material to reflect different states of change. Glass is the perfect material to use since it’s a material that is created through change, in heat, natural raw materials change in form and state, going from a solid to a liquid to a solid again, making it a material of cycles as well.