about
After graduating in 2005 from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, The Design School, with a project of large cast glass objects, I set up my own workshop in Christchurch, New Zealand and worked from here for 5 years. In 2011 I returned to my native Denmark and joined Luftkraft Glasstudie for almost 4 years. At the start of 2015 I settled back in Christchurch, New Zealand.
I work with the cast glass exploring the raw and often avoided effects and traces from the process of creating. I look for aesthetic quality and value in the non-conform. It is the process that takes the lead in my work and my series are build from set methods with common rules, and with deliberate room for uncontrolled elements, inviting spontaneity to play a part within these rules. My work has a clear connection to a starting point with crafts in ceramics and I always returns to my reference point of the geological landscape through a strong passion for rock climbing. The textures and structures are translated to tactile experiences in glass.
Casting glass is a slow process; creating a model from wax or clay, making a plaster and quarts mould around the model, removing the model by hand or steam and finally casting the glass into the plaster mould at 820C. Depending on the thickness of the piece the annealing in the kiln (slow cooling to avoid build up of stress in the glass) can take from 1 day to 4 weeks – most of my glass sculptures being in the 4 weeks category.
“Although, with her sombre palette and tortuous forms, Christina Rivett is moving in quite a different direction from that of classic aestheticism, the emotional and sensual appeal of her work is undeniable.” Louise Mazanti, A New Perspective on Beauty, from the catalogue of GLASSS 2007