New Zealand born and Sydney based sculptor Ben Young, is a self-taught artist who has been making glass sculptures for over 10 years.
Inspired by landscapes of oceans and bodies of water, each of his pieces are hand drawn, hand cut and hand crafted, layer on layer to create the end product, and he doesn’t use any computer or high-tech machinery to help him.
Before starting to draw or even cut his sculptures, he says he does a lot of thinking, then starts to sketch the idea by hand and comes up with a plan using traditional drawing techniques.
Ben mentions, ‘I work with 2D shapes and have to figure out how to translate that into a 3D finished piece. Sometimes my starting point changes dramatically as I have to find a way to layer the glass to create certain shapes.’
Using glass and light, he is able to give the illusion that sculptures have come to life, creating the illusion of space, movement, depth and sense of spatial being.
Ben uses concrete as it complements the organic shape of the glass and at the same time it contrasts between the textures and colors of the glass slices.
