This publication gathers images of artworks taken in the artist’s studio and in his backyard in upstate New York. Hansen’s art oscillates between the small, deteriorated found object and the delicate, hand-blown glass sculpture, neutralizing the contradictory status of the precious to the discarded. Dysfunctional and beautifully imperfect, his elaborate structures and installations channel an ongoing relationship with everyday objects and create a sophisticated visual language around the familiar.
A conversation—especially commissioned for this publication—between the artist and his brother, the sculptor Oscar Tuazon, on the practice of glassblowing and the making of art objects, reveals a fundamental understanding of Hansen’s delicate work.
Elias Hansen (born 1979 in Seattle) is an American artist who studied at Whitman College. After dropping out of school to work on a ranch, he returned to the Northwest and spent 10 years working in various glass studios. He now lives and works in upstate New York.