will be showing his new jewelry at the American Craft Council's San Francisco Craft Show at Fort Mason, on Friday, August 15, Saturday, August 16 and Sunday, August 17. He will be in booth #1019.
Recent Show
Cash exhibited his light sculptures at
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair in May 2008
at the Jacob Javit's Center in New York City booth #408.
Award
At the 2007 WASHINGTON DC CRAFT SHOW, Cash received the COLLECTOR'S AWARD for his jewelry and booth presentation.
This award included a big green prize ribbon and a check for $800. The award was also featured in the sign-age at the show.
Recent Light installation in a stairwell
Sydney Cash recently put one of his unique Light Installations in the top corner of a stairwell in a duplex loft in Brooklyn, NY. The piece is 78" tall.
This same installation has been chosen by Tina Oldknow, curator for contemporary glass for The Corning Museum of Glass, to be published in her “Juror’s Choice” section in the New Glass Review 28. The New Glass Review is a selection based upon excellence, of the 100 most interesting new works in glass, for that year.
Article in Robb Report Luxury Home Summer 2006
Glass artist Sydney Cash sculpts the light fantastic
By Jorge Arrango “One day, when I was doing something else in the studio, I noticed the way light was reflected on the wall,” says Sydney Cash. “And suddenly I saw light as an object. I realized it was a form I could manipulate.”
It’s not that Cash had never noticed light before. A well-known artist whose primary material is most often glass, light has always played an integral part in his work. The way Cash treats the surface of glass (polishing or etching it, for example), and the way he layers, cuts, colors, fuses or slumps it, affects the way light moves through and around each piece, alternately diffusing, reflecting, dulling or enhancing its luminosity. But what happened in that instant—at least where the subsequent light sculptures are concerned (he continues to work in other mediums)—was that light shifted from supporting cast to central player. “I realized I could fabricate materials so that the light itself had shape,” explains the artist.
So Cash began experimenting with fusing together clear and mirrored glass, cutting it in various shapes, attaching it to the wall and, finally, illuminating it in ways that created complex patterns and forms on the wall. Light hitting the mirrored areas reflects upward or downward, while light encountering clear sections passes through. The patterns are puzzled out using computer software, but the final piece—which can cost between $3,000 and 12,000—requires Cash’s careful fine-tuning. “With the light, the angle of attack is really important,” says the artist. “The sculptures themselves change as the placement of light changes.”
There is also the question of directing the beams of light, controlling how narrowly or widely they cast their glow. Cash employs a variety of techniques to achieve the desired effects, sometimes using halogen light, other times theater lighting equipment adapted to his needs. Often, Cash also traces the outline of the light sculpture on the wall, the lines becoming ghosts of his living sculptural medium when lights are turned off.
“My aesthetic has always had a technical quality to it,” admits the upstate New York-based Cash. “But it’s really about materials. My approach is not theoretical. I’m an empirical inventor; I risk making crazy, stupid mistakes, but I have an eye for noticing when something works and jumping on it.”
