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2015 December 19
by Liz Heller

2010, Found automotive glass and resin

I became inspired by the beauty of the broken automotive glass on the sidewalks. Aesthetically, I was drawn to the fragmented reflective quality of the material in stark contrast to the concrete and grime upon which it sat. Conceptually, I was intrigued that this broken material could be so inviting given that its function was violently destroyed. Collection of Theft is an exploration of the juxtaposition of destruction and creation. A pile of broken automotive glass is repurposed into the form of a brick, a universal symbol of building. The finished installation consisted of 96 glass and resin bricks in the form of two partitions that that protruded 17 inches from the wall to give the audience a false sense of privacy and shelter. The bricks were accompanied by an audio documentation of my process working with the unorthodox materials, which was also synchronized with LED lights to highlight the different optical properties of the composite material.