Hank Murta Adams: Clustermulch
Elliott Brown
Gallery,
Seattle
Oct 13, 2001 - Nov 24,
2001
 Duckcluster (2001), plaster, glass and copper |
Sculptor Hank Murta Adams is a translucent glass artist. He is at ease with the glass casting technique and introduces plaster casting with this new work. Still figurative, the work includes objects and glass castings that play on the idea of what we put on pedestals. Copper wire is used for compositional line that gives the image seriousness and pulls the work away from being an architectural cartoon.
I believe the best description for some of Adams' cast glass is "survived." Venetian glass blowers would hide under their beds if Adams were allowed to put the finishing touches on their work with his hammer and chisel. He could whittle a Venetian lion down to a glass kitten that looks more like it was made of cement.
His characters have been given grotesque growths and mechanical apparatuses that sprout out from some unknown composition. The still-life pedestal work seems to magnetically attract objects such as bolts, rabbits to vodka bottle shaped towers. A rabbit turned sideways becomes a duck, hence the name Duckcluster. This artist challenges the traditional techniques of glass blowing, but reveals an admiration and a sense of wit for the object.
"I don't mean to be flippant, but being curatorial is not the issue here, there is a line and a thread that connects everything I do".
© Robert Peterson