Photographing glass is like photographing a sunset – interview with glass sculptor László Lukácsi

On 22 April, the 2017 National Salon, titled “All Around Us”, opens at Műcsarnok / Kunsthalle Budapest; it will review the past ten years of applied arts and design. We will get to know the designers who play a defining role in their profession, whether as masters or as young talents. We will be able to form a picture of the new genres that have emerged alongside the classics, and of the professional challenges that characterise contemporary applied arts and design.

GLASS SCULPTOR LÁSZLÓ LUKÁCSI graduated in 1985 from the then College of Applied Arts (Iparművészeti Főiskola). Foreign galleries and glass collections took an interest in him immediately. His career has been played out on the international stage ever since. His works can be found in important public collections. He is a Hungarian applied artist who is recognised not only in Europe but also in Japan and America. In 2010 he won the Gold Prize at the world’s most prestigious glass art exhibition (International Exhibition of Glass), out of 470 artists from 39 countries. Then, in 2014, at the Coburg Glass Prize, the European showcase of contemporary glass art, he took home both the jury prize and the audience prize.

In László Lukácsi’s body of work, cold-working glass techniques have become the defining ones over the years. Although as a college student he still ran a glass furnace in his family’s laundry room – that is, he made glass objects with a hot process, by blowing – in the end it was not the technique of hot glassworking that became his lifelong love. Instead, in mirrors and flat glass he saw the possibilities that still fascinate him to this day. He builds his works from sheets of flat glass and mirror, then shapes their forms, and the special internal effects arising from the refraction of light, through careful and precise grinding and polishing.

Since the special quality of glass as a material lies in its transparency and its ability to let light through, it presents a different sight depending on the viewpoint and the lighting. For this reason, for the Kunsthalle Budapest exhibition László Lukácsi chose the modern approach of also publishing a 3D digital recording of his glass object. We talked to him about this recording.

Why did you also have a 3D recording made of your work “Petals” (Szirmok)?

László Lukácsi: Because a recording like this provides additional information about the object. It turns completely around and can be viewed from every side, so it is easier to understand, and it is an enjoyable sight – beautiful and exciting.

How was this recording made?

Thanks to the enthusiasm of the photographic artist Péter Peti, 64 photographs of the glass object were taken with a Phase One IQ280 medium-format camera, the object being rotated by 5.8 degrees after each shot. Then my daughter, Liza Lukácsi (a media student at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, MOME), assembled the photographs into a three-dimensional moving image.

How much importance do you attach to light and lighting in your works?

With glass objects, many kinds of illumination are conceivable, and perhaps there is no such thing as the “best lighting”. It is more like a magical sunset: the momentary angle and strength of the light determine what we see. Each version is beautiful and unique. How we see an object depends on many things. Depending on the light, we might even take the same work for a completely different creation.

Do you usually play with this when installing your works?

I would very much like to experiment with it, but I have not yet had the time. For example, I have long been planning an exhibition where we would see the same object under different lighting.

How much emphasis do you place on photographing your works? After all, this variety could also be shown in a photograph or a video.

When I was at college, I myself tried to photograph all the possibilities, and I invested in serious analogue equipment. But I have never played through the whole range. I simply do not have the time. Taking a good photograph, working out by experiment the best settings for the shot and the lighting, takes a surprisingly long time. A lot more than a layperson would think. To document my finished works, I always try to snap them at the last moment, but the truth is that most of my works are only finished when the courier is already waiting in the hallway. I am sorry about that, because it would be important to me to record them in a worthy way.

Do you have so many commissions and exhibitions?

Yes, that is partly the “curse of success” – I hope that does not sound immodest. But it also follows from my creative method. My glass sculptures could be ground and polished endlessly. I want to achieve perfection, but that is impossible. I always work on my pieces until the last moment, trying to get close, through grinding and polishing, to what I consider good. The work often transforms while I am working on it. I begin with a specific plan in my head, but as the glass takes shape, I notice new characteristics inherent in it. It is constantly changing in my hands; in fact, the only thing that puts an end to this is the opening of the exhibition.

It is as if your works had a life of their own, and you adapt to them as well, rather than merely shaping them. It seems like an organic approach.

Nature is my master. I recharge in it. I am fascinated by the beautiful forms it creates. I observe natural forms that have a pleasant effect on me, and I incorporate them into my work.

“When I saw the film The Matrix, I became preoccupied with the technical solution that if we photograph an object or a scene from many directions at the same time, we will be able to walk around it and examine it from several directions. Of course, I did not have the opportunity to photograph with 300 cameras at once, but this effect can also be produced by taking pictures of the object while rotating it.

In 2001, I built a turntable with which you can rotate even a car. Today this photographic technique is most widespread in online commerce, but museums and collections are also increasingly often presenting their treasures in 3D.”

Péter Peti, photographer