Transparent blown glass Anima vessels appear as emergent bio forms punctured with machinic hardware to create ventilated openings, indicating the release of breath that formed or ‘animated’ the objects. Unlike crystal minerals with highly ordered molecular structures, glass is an ambivalent matter with solid and liquid properties—it is atomic disorder congealed.
The implied flow of breath and heat from these porous glass figures recalls the vital air substance of the spirit (anima) described by Epicurean philosopher Lucretius as a material contained in an incomplete mortal body in De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things. Within his radical materialism, he presents conscious embodied life as an indeterminate assemblage constituted by multiplicities and spatialities that exceed the individual. In Latin, “anima” translates as breath, life, or vital force. With these works, the breath is captured and made into solid and visible form.
