Artist's glass experiments shattering -- in a good way

What do you get when you enclose a Cadbury Creme Egg in hot molten glass - aside from an explosion?

If you’re sculptor Alyson Shotz, you get insight into the effect a blazing burst of foil, milk chocolate, sugar, glucose syrup, egg white, calcium chloride and artificial flavor has on an important art medium: hot glass.

Shotz, whose sculptures explore the world’s basic physical structure, was at Stanford March 26-30 as the annual Sterling Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemical and Systems Biology.

The Brooklyn, NY-based artist’s Stanford visit included two public lectures as well as three group trips with the department’s staff, students and faculty to Public Glass art studio in San Francisco.

Beyond exploding candy, the groups carried out similar experiments with other foods, from meatballs to slices of kiwi. They also blew a ceiling-high, seven-chambered glass bubble, puffing in air through seven tubes. This delicate construct too was fated to break, though not with a bang but a tinkling.

“It sounded like snowflakes falling,” said Daria Mochly-Rosen, PhD, a professor in the department and the medical school’s senior associate dean for research and training.

Norbert von der Groeben

Students and faculty blow a seven-chambered glass bubble: (from left) Jun Ni, Rebecca Chen, Travis Urban and Leslie Ann Cruz. Matthew Szosz adjusts a tube (far left), while Evan Venaas hoists the steel frame.

Shotz, whose work is exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, said she planned the glass studio experiments to provide a new kind of experience and a chance to work with materials in a different way.

Her ultimate purpose, though, was to look at the resulting glass pieces under a microscope, which she did back on campus.

“It was very surprising to see what ended up on the glass after all of the fire and explosions,” said Shotz. “The structures I saw changed from piece to piece, even if I was looking at the same material on the surface. There was a combination of organic and inorganic that was also interesting — the way some substances, like salt or baking soda, got embedded in the glass.”

For the Stanford groups, the trips to the glass studio had immediate benefits, said Mochly-Rosen. “It got people working together who don’t usually interact. It got them out of their comfort zone.”

They also revealed some commonalities. Shotz said artists and scientists often “try things, we throw things at the wall, see what sticks. Sometimes you have a preconceived idea, and maybe that works. But then there’s some accident or mistake that leads you in another direction.”

A collection of Shotz’s photomicrographs can be seen on the third floor of the CCSR building outside of room 3130. The department plans to display the glass pieces as well.