Gnarled Glass: In Conversation with Maurice La Rooy
Maurice La Rooy’s work is frequently figurative and always oriented around glass since he grew up in the offcuts bin. He has spent a lot of time of his youth playing in his father’s glass studio, he speaks of fond memories of rummaging around in this bosh, retrieving all his favourite pieces out. However, it wasn’t until his twenties that he pursued a professional career within the arts.
Maurice first started out in Graphic Design after completing a programme at Media college Amsterdam. He didn’t thrive in the desk based, office environment, so he returned to the haven of his father’s factory and started work as a second assistant, he didn’t get a technical education, he learned all his skills in the factory. This allowed him to throw off the shackles of technical glassblowing exercises, so he had the time to try out other things – he was straight out the gate with making sculptural objects and was never too taken with vessel making.
Maurice was in the shop about 60-80 hours a week and this helped
him understand what other people made in this industry. His fathers’ colleagues
always commented that for a kid who was so disinterested in glass making, to
find him in the factory for 60+ hours was astounding, which speaks to his
commitment and sudden fulfilment by this exciting material.
As a self-proclaimed ‘Glass geek’, Maurice is really driven
by the technical potential of the material over the assumed aesthetic value. He’s
not particularly driven by material of glass in its infant form, but rather he
is really drawn to how it evolves when combined with another, resistant
material – the glass dulls from its shiny prowess and is marred by contrasting material
additions.
Maurice mainly turns to metals to achieve this; he likes
the contrast of making with metal after he has spent time with the glass – as
glass is a needy material! But metal can be roughed around a bit more. Metal
has a tougher feeling, and Maurice is compelled by the dysfunctional union
between a sensitive material and a rough material. He also uses wood to achieve
that mixed-media affect, which is more organic and coalesces a bit differently,
smoother and more sensitive.
When the metal is a visual part of the glass, it’s like the metal is hurting the
glass, or the metal is like this growing affliction to the glassMaurice La Rooy
We are thrilled to learn about what techniques make Maurice tick, which is a culmination of different fixations on making, or as Maurice puts it, ‘geeking out for glass.’ He was using so much glass just experimenting and trying everything, even emptying a whole pot in one session! One evening as he was waiting for the furnace to get back to temp, he was googling all the big names, Corning, Pittsburgh, who have these large databases of resident artists. He found Martin Janecký, who is a Master of Interior sculpting, interior sculpting is the act of manipulating forms from the interior of the bubble with specialist sculpting tools (pictured below). With these tools you can tease the glass form to you desired effect, with Martin Janecký utilising this technique to create incredible figurative works.
Maurice was so fascinated with how detailed the sculpture could be with working on the interior of the bubble, he became fixated on this newfound technique – spending a lot of time learning about the cooling and heating exchanges needed. Shaping the material of glass is like the way sculptors handle clay, which keeps Maurice captivated and motivated to make these realistic like sculptures. You are also size bounded by the gloryhole, so Maurice likes bringing in different materials to increase the size of a work, for example, the inclusion of metal, to be present not only as a way of hanging it, like an afterthought, but rather considering it as the works connective tissue.
In 2022, Maurice was approached by our very own Bethany Wood during his residency at The National Glass Centre, and commissioned a new work, the work ‘Fruition’ is now proudly displayed in our hybrid hot shop studio and available on our online gallery. This work was commissioned during a lot of change, upon reflection, Maurice realised this wasn’t a positive sort of change, and this new commission was an up in a period of a lot of downs. The whole emotion behind this work carries over feelings explored in a prior work MoMonto-Mori. Fruition is self-analytical, the MoMonto-Mori series relates to Maurice’s nickname Momo – which represents keeping who you are at the forefront of yourself.
Click here to view Fruition
Hot Sculpted glass, gilded metal, mounted on marble, 390 × 9600 × 590 mm
Click Here
Lately, Maurice is working through an abstract period, still fixated on this fascination with interior sculpting, but striking more of a stark contrast, pitting the concepts of interior against exterior. DisAquired Taste, 2018, Imagines what a narcissist would be as abstract objects. The smooth and shiny exterior is contrasted against the gnarled and twisted inside. Maurice is also exploring the mirroring technique and reflective material in general, expanding the idea of the reflection of a mere visage, to reflection of one’s inner self, which corresponds to Maurice’s overarching stimulus – what he is experiencing emotionally and how this is a driver to make.
Written by Leanne O’Connor
© Blowfish Glass UK
