Glass, Optics and Image with The Henry Ford Museum

Focusing on glass as a mediator of image, a group of College for Creative Studies students took a Crafts and Material Studies class learning how to utilize glass objects as an actor in photography and video through a sponsored project with The Henry Ford Museum.

Students began the project with a private tour of the museum’s archive collection led by museum curators. The archive is located in a restricted building adjacent to The Henry Ford Museum and consists of more than 22 million objects. 

The Henry Ford Museum’s Senior Manager of Retail Sales and Craft Production and CCS alumnus Joshua Wojick (‘02, Crafts) hoped the collection would broaden students’ perspective of glass. “It truly was a joy to see the students become immersed in The Henry Ford’s collections. My goal was to provide an opportunity for these artists to expand their dialogue with the objects and environment surrounding them, and help to affect their artistic practices.”

Inspired by car headlights in the archive collection, photography junior Jenna Wyly used discarded remnant glass pieces found in the glass studio for her work. “My piece is about finding beauty in every object. Repurposed items are a large theme throughout most of my work. I love the idea that some things that were going to be trash are now beautiful and sought-after items.”

Students were also challenged to consider both the technical and conceptual connections between glass and image-making.  

Sophomore Interdisciplinary Art and Design student Brenden Roumaya created a final piece using blown glass, automotive footage and projection. “My inspiration for this was the way blown glass refracts light and fills the space around it, creating a piece of art that changes dramatically when the glass is moved even slightly. This piece is about the contrast between glass in the industrial and automotive industries being form-fitting and strictly functional versus a piece of glass created solely to be beautiful.”

Wojick was impressed by the depth of the final projects. “I think the most surprising thing for me was the breadth of the work created. While I was expecting the use of light to be an integral part of the works, I was not prepared for how varied the artists’ use of photography, video, color, and sound would be. Each was unique, well thought out, and interesting to experience as a viewer.”