Sean Salstrom

Light was projected through hand-blown glass cups. Imperfections in the glass and material memory of the process of making the cups is evidenced by the shadows which were projected onto paper and traced. These patterns result in a map of sorts that transcribes the process of making.

Molten glass was poured into bored-out holes in various found books, resulting in cast-cores which model the void left behind. The original samples of the pages which were bored out of the books are catalogued in a stack of file cabinets, they are the incomplete evidence of a much more complete story. These slices can be used to create a newer shared narrative.

The book and the cast-glass core have been cased in glass containers to make them buoyant. They are at once submerged and suspended, adrift and contained. Certain optical effects occur as one walks around the piece; the book happens to appear and disappear from view. This relates to the searching for the elusive great white whale.

Various items from Salstrom’s domestic life have been collected and archived for display. These include cat fur collected from a few brushing sessions with his two cats, a discarded plastic cup, and an important notebook that accidentally went through the laundry. The condensation inside the jar is moisture from the laundry cycle. The cat fur in the glass sphere was molded into a brain-like shape.

Feline Bezoar Discovery Reports is inspired by the whalers’ search for cetaceans and, by proxy, ambergris (whale vomit). In this work Salstrom brought the act of ambergris discovery closer to home. For the past year he searched out and collected hairballs expelled by his two cats (Alcatraz and Natto). He mapped his home noting each hairball discovery site, and then made unique containers to display each hairball.

Thinking of ambergris as something that was be consumed but was difficult to digest. Salstrom took consumables in his life that might also be difficult to digest: the news (newspaper), fast food, carbonized meat and fat, chicken bones, and embedded them into molten glass to make blubbery mounds. The works are elevated to varying degrees, as if they are floating. This is in reference to the valuable ambergris often nicknamed “Floating Gold”.

Glass objects were made with embedded materials collected from the surrounding area of the Ladd Observatory. The title refers to terms from a Meteorite Glossary. The trophy-like shapes also loosely allude to astronomical and planetary models in the observatory.

The objects in the display case were inspired by the planetary models in the room. Sean was thinking about the ways that humans have dealt with planetary sampling and modeling like capturing the imprint of footsteps on the moon, collecting bits of meteorites and making shrunken plastic balls in the shape of the sun and planets. Sean tried to do this using objects in his own life, which he encased in glass vessels as a means to suggest an elevated importance. Each object is given a title card written in blue and red ballpoint pen, which references hand written labels in the Ladd.