Exhibition
Michael Petry - Sir John Soane's Museum
Reinvigorating Sir John Soane’s patronage of contemporary British artists and delving into the emotionally charged forces of light at work in the Museum, acclaimed multi-media artist Michael Petry will be exhibiting at Sir John Soane’s Museum later this year and returning early in 2011 with a second exhibition of site-specific work developed in response to the museum, its unique ambience, its collections and its archives.
For the first phase Petry will exhibit glass pieces which fuse, in an almost alchemical process, neo-classical silver forms with the organic, fluid qualities of molten glass. This fusion complements Sir John Soane’s interest in neo-classical silver (as evidenced in his collection of Robert Adam drawings for silver designs) and his use of the transformative nature of glass in his architecture. Using stained glass and plain coloured glass Soane ‘played’ with the qualities of light and shade throughout his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields to create the most evocative and appropriate moods to display his collections and sculptural arrangements. He also used light to manipulate architectural form. Today he is recognised as the English master of ‘lumière mystérieuse’, the almost mystical, mysterious atmosphere achieved through a variety of light effects, including skylights, mirrors, and concealed lamps.
