Christian Schneider-Moll – Berlin-Based Glass Artist
ABOUT ME AND MY ARTISTIC APPROACH
My name is Christian Schneider-Moll and I have been living and working in Berlin since the late 1970s, now as an independent artist.
Before that I successfully completed an engineering degree followed by studies in art. I had already encountered many different materials, particularly metal and glass, and now I got the possibility of working with them freely.
I began experimenting with neon technology and lighting engineering while at the same time taking on commissions, and founded companies working commercially in the field of high-quality lighting systems for galleries, museums and sublime living. Which brought a constant search for solutions across a wide range of fields and gave me experience in the most varied areas.
Three years ago I then began pursuing my fascination with glass more intensively, largely self-taught. Glass as a material is mysterious yet concrete. It has a wonderful tactile quality, durability and sustainability, and it is a high quality material that brings me great joy to work with. For this reason I work exclusively with Czech optical glass.
It was this fascination that gave me the idea of wanting to create paintings through structures enlivened by light into glass.
My glass pieces consist of two main elements: the glass object itself and the base. The base contains the LED lighting system together with a dichroic or colored glass filter specially selected for each individual piece, which is essential for the dramatic play of light.
The glass objects are created using self-built kiln molds. These are filled with carrier glass and an inner structure composed of differently textured glass – sometimes colored, sometimes enriched with mineral oxides, or with rods of varying thickness – which are then fused together in the kiln.
A large part of my artistic work lies in understanding the physical processes that occur during melting and cooling. Some minerals, for example, change their color at high temperatures like the melting point of 860 °C, while glass fragments or glass frit develop particular structures after fusing into the carrier glass. These are all processes that must be carefully observed and understood.
Grinding and polishing are the next critical steps, as they are extremely time-consuming and carry a considerable amount of potential for mistakes or even damage to the glass. At the same time these steps are also deeply satisfying, as mirrors gradually begin to form on the surfaces of the glass blocks and the inner structure slowly reveals itself, as if coming to life.
My approach is “to paint” inside a three-dimensional canvas, mainly achieved by polishing each edge into a mirror in order to extend the subject into a new format, transforming the interior depending on the angle of the observer.
Since the glass object reveals its interior differently depending on the angle from which it is viewed, it can reflect and evoke different moods and emotions – something I prefer to express through actions and visuals rather than through words.
What is seen exists only in the mind of the observer. My series flow into one another, often almost seamlessly. They learn from themselves; ideas, concepts and methods fall away or are added, and gradually a new series crystallizes – until it too begins to evolve into something new.