Firozabad artists work with French artist for exhibit in Paris

Artisans from Firozabad, famed for its bangles and other glass works, have collaborated with French artist Jean Michel Othoniel to create a glass sculpture that would later be showcased in Paris as part of a bigger exhibition involving India.

Othoniel is known for his larger-than-life creations in glass such as hanging giant necklaces in the bamboo gardens of Rome and transforming the entrance of a Paris Metro station into a "Kiosk of the night-walkers" made of glass beads coloured threaded on a structure of aluminium among other creations.

The French contemporary artist visited India in 2009 and interacted with the artisan glass blowers in Firozabad to execute his watercolour drawing of a bejewelled glass wall.

"I have been working with glass medium for the past 15 years and have worked with many glass blowers but the technique used by artisans in Firozabad is new. We have more hi-tech blowers but the ones here are different, they work with passion," the artist said.

The sculpture 'Precious Stonewall' comprises of 4200 bricks blown from glass and polished to a gold gleam and are piled on top of each other to crate a 4.2 metre high wall that has been adorned with 150 glass bead necklaces strung over it.

"I discovered the primal force of this material of deep hues while working in Firozabad in the heat of furnaces and the dust of pigments," he says.

The 5-ton structure would be travelling to Paris where it will be showcased at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2011 as part of a major exhibition involving India and titled, 'Paris-Delhi-Bombay'.

"Sometimes a work of art can make you look at normal life in a different way. A pile of bricks lying on the road can never be imagined to be made into something so beautiful. I created the precious brick wall to remind people of that," says the 46-year-old artist.

Even though Othoniel has worked to create huge installations in glass, the French artist does not limit himself to the medium and says he has a passion for materials with reversible properties and focuses on the moments of transition when an object changes from one state to another.

"My next project is a sandstone monument. I am also thinking of creating something from bangles. I have collected around 22,000 bangles so far," says the artist.

The 'Precious Stone wall' created in India at the invitation of the French embassy in collaboration with Culturesfrance (Paris), the Alliance Francaise de Delhi and supported by the Centre Geores Pompidou, would be exhibited at the Lalit Kala Kendra here till August 28, 2010 before travelling to Paris.