If the glass sculptor Pipaluk Lake compares herself to an adventurer on a permanent voyage in the realms of the still unknown material possibilities, the voyage is shared with whom contemplates her works. Her world offers a strange beauty, different and captivating.
Amalgamations between the universes of water, ice, botanics and textiles, her sculptures don’t only come down to forms evoking the spurt of a geyser, wings unfolding, a flower opening or the heavy drapery of humid fabric. They share a notion of movement, the kind of movement provoked by the forces of water, wind, temperature and weight.

The result of an encounter between intention, construction and the creative freedom in nature’s forces, the process used by Pipaluk Lake is developed during her quadruple training in wood sculpture, metalwork, glass and textiles. Initially she builds metal structures (copper) following a logic of cut-outs and volume creation in textiles. These structures are used to mount glass sheets which are then tied together using metallic threads (iron). On other occasions she binds and sews the glass sheets together directly using only the thread. These ‘bundles’ of material are then placed or suspended in the oven where the heat and laws of gravitation fold and elongate them in such a way that the different materials are joined and blend into each other. This procedure also provokes a chromatic creation on the glass, either by the transfer of metal oxides during heating, or by the application of acids, salts, oxides or organic materials on the glass before heating. The colours make up an exceptional palette – of grey-greens, copper reds, cobalt blues, delicate tones of pinky beige and shimmering mother of pearl.

As rich in evocative associations as are her works (Carried away, Drapery, Passage, Carrier), Pipaluk Lake’s intention is not to represent or to recreate known shapes or phenomena. With her very personal approach the aim is to trigger a process where the result is only partly predictable. The artist’s desire is to invent a new world, a materialisation of the invisible in a dreamlike poetic form.

Pipaluk Lake’s universe (1962 - …) is situated atypically in the context of Nordic contemporary glass. Highly acknowledged and primed (Hempel Glaspris 1999, Honorable mentions for the 2nd Chongju Int. Crafts Competition, Korea 2001, Silver medal for Kunsthåndværkerprisen af 1879 (artisans art prize) Pipaluk Lake’s work has been presented throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, in Germany, Slovenia, Czechoslovakia, as well as in China, Korea and Canada. In 2006, the Chappel Gallery in New York dedicated a personal show to her work. Two years later one of her sculptures joined the V&A collections in London and that same year GALERIE MARIA LUND presented the first exhibition of her sculptures in France.

• From 16.01.2010 works by Pipaluk Lake will be visible on www.marialund.com
  
• PUBLISHING of a leaflet with reproductions of a selection of works and a text by the art historian Louise Mazanti.
  
• OPENING: Saturday 23 January 2010 from 5pm to 8pm, the artist will be present.
• The exhibition ends Saturday 6 March 2010.
• This exhibition has received the support of the Danish Crafts.

For further information about the  availability of visuals, please contact :
GALERIE MARIA LUND     48 rue de Turenne     75003 Paris

Tuesday-Saturday 12-7 pm
ph : (33) 01 42 76 00 33    cellphone : (33) 06 61 15 99 91    fax :(33) 01 42 76 00 10