Ab website18lo


<< previous next >>

LIGHTING

Sumsandi gnismolor sim dip ex ex ent augiamc onsequat. Pat ex ex exercipis enibh eu facilluptat nis nostrud minis nullamconsed dunt adipit nim velit iriustio core dolute essequipit amet, summod dipit ullum dunt venibh eui blaorpe riliquat lam incillan exer si bla facin ex ero dolobor sequi bla consecte modolob orerit, core volorper alis nostrud dit am, ver autpat prat. quatisc iduisci bla conulla feugiat adit, conullum autpat, quisl.

dolobor sequi bla consecte modolob orerit, core volorper alis nostrud dit am, ver autpat prat. quatisc iduisci bla conulla feugiat adit, conullum autpat, quisl.

Form study, “Chinese” apothecary jars

OBJECTS | ALL OBJECTS

OBJECTS

Text to come. Hide this page from the public until then

All Objects

Vessels

Comme Des Garçons

Hermès


<< previous next >>

LIGHTING



Form study “Chinese” apothecary jars

OBJECTS | ALL OBJECTS

All Objects

Vessels

Comme Des Garçons

Hermès


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Still life - light study


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Detail of Morandi’s studio Diderot etchings


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Bottle sketch Detail Flemish painting Still life


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Inspiration research and tear vial


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Alchemy drawing, photo transfer with graphite and oil pastel


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Vase with cast base, Bar set - Grappa bottle Bottle with cast base and glass


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Cup and Heart


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Water bottles Drawing - graphite on mylar


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Water bottle detail Water bottles


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Bar set series


<< previous next >>

OBJECTS | VESSELS

Bar set detail Cabinet with various vessels and found objects


<< previous next >>Inspiration for commission, Alberto Giacommeti, The Palace at 4am Detail of storefront installation

Description: Text to comeOBJECTS

COMME DESGARÇONS


<< previous next >>Storefront entry


COMME DESGARÇONS


<< previous next >>Storefront street view


COMME DESGARÇONS


<< previous next >>Installation storefront details


COMME DESGARÇONS


OBJECTS

HERMÈS

<< previous next >>Concept collage for The Balance Line Collection

Description: Text to come


OBJECTS

HERMÈS

<< previous next >>Group shot, The Balance Line Collection Oil and vinegar bottles



OBJECTS

HERMÈS

<< previous next >>


Cereal and sugar bowls


<< previous next >>Creamer , The Balance Collection Still life, The Balance Collection


HERMÈS


<< previous next >>

LIGHTING | ALL LIGHTING

Clear bulb filament detail

LIGHTING


All Lighting

Pendants

Sconces

Floor Lamps


<< previous next >>

LIGHTING | ALL LIGHTING

Clear bulb filament detail

All Lighting

Pendants

Sconces

Floor Lamps


<< previous next >>Word Pendant detail Word Pendant

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Word Pendant

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>2005 Firefly Pendant

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Bell Light Crystal Sphere Pendant, Onion Light

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Crystal Sphere Pendant Chandeleiier detail

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>2001 Pendants - Threaded, Rolled, Acid-Etched 2001 Pistil Pendant

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Amber Tree Lights

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Inspiration, 4th century wedding goblet 2003 Thread-By-Thread Pendant

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Disc Pendant

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Inspiration collage Lantern Pendant

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Scripted Pendant Chendelier detail Scripted Pendant Chandelier from below

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Bell Tower Chandelier Inspiration photo

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Silver Line Pendants

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Prototype form studies Silver Line Pendant Chandelier

LIGHTING | PENDANTS


<< previous next >>Tear Sconce

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Cylinder Sconce

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Crystal Sphere Sconce

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Double Block Sconce

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Inspiration for Lens Sconce

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Lens Sconce prototype Optical study

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Lens Sconce

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Lens Chandelier detail Lens Chandelier

LIGHTING | SCONCES


<< previous next >>Drawings and historical inspiration for Surveyor’s Floor Lamp

LIGHTING | FLOOR LAMPS


<< previous next >>Cartographer’s drawing Surveyor’s Floor Lamp



<< previous next >>

LIGHTING




Roman Ring detail Roman Ring Floor Lamp


<< previous next >>

FURNITURE | ALL FURNITURE

Glass Stool

FURNITURE


All Furniture

Stools

Tables

Abicus Screen


<< previous next >>

FURNITURE | ALL FURNITURE

Glass Stool

All Furniture

Stools

Tables

Abicus Screen


<< previous next >>Glass Stool

FURNITURE | STOOLS

All Furniture

Stools

Tables

Abicus Screen


<< previous next >>Glass Stool and drawings

FURNITURE | STOOLS


<< previous next >>Found jade abacus

FURNITURE | ABICUS SCREEN


<< previous next >>Abacus Screen drawings



<< previous next >>Abacus Screen beads



<< previous next >>Abacus Screen elevations



<< previous next >>Abacus Screen details



<< previous next >>Crystal Sphere Pendant Chandelier photo contact sheet

COMMISSIONS | ALL COMMISSIONS

COMMISSIONS


All Commissions

Crystal Sphere Chandelier

Constellation

Glass Slde Chandelier

Astrolabe


<< previous next >>Crystal Sphere Pendant Chandelier photo contact sheet

COMMISSIONS | ALL COMMISSIONS

All Commissions

Crystal Sphere Chandelier

Constellation

Glass Slde Chandelier

Astrolabe


<< previous next >>Crystal Sphere Pendant Chandelier seen from below

Description: Inspired by the repetition of the window mullions that were predominate throughout the site, the structure of the chandelier is a three dimensional interpretation of the window patterns. During the day, the presence of the structure lends an architectural element to the room. At night, the lights float, creating a quiet constellation.

COMMISSIONS

CRYSTAL SPHERE PENDANTCHANDELIER


<< previous next >>Crystal Sphere Pendant Chandelier detail Chrystal Sphere Pendant Chandelier installation view

Description: Inspired by the repetition of the window mullions that were predominate throughout the site, the structure of the chandelier is a three dimensional interpretation of the window patterns. During the day, the presence of the structure lends an architectural element to the room. At night, the lights float, creating a quiet constellation.

COMMISSIONS

CRYSTAL SPHERE PENDANTCHANDELIER


<< previous next >>Site photo

COMMISSIONS | CONSTELLATION


<< previous next >>Constellation Chandelier view from stair Star map from vintage glass slide



<< previous next >>Constellation Chandelier as seen from below



<< previous next >>Glass Slide Chandelier drawings and inspiration

COMMISSIONS

GLASS SLIDECHANDELIER

Description: This project combines Alison’s interest in creating new forms around found objects. The structure of the chandelier acts like an architectural monument to the past, the lives led, the places traveled. It is comprised of Alison’s personal collection of antique glass slides acquired over the last 25 years.


<< previous next >>Glass Slide Chandelier detail

COMMISSIONS




<< previous next >>Glass Slide Chandelier installation view

COMMISSIONS




<< previous next >>Glass Slide Chandelier installation view


COMMISSIONS



<< previous next >>

Description: This piece explores Alison’s ongoing interest in creating contemporary forms from historical and scientific apparatuses. It is inspired from a 16th century, hand held astrolabe device that was used to chart the stars along nautical pathways. The device is reinterpreted, increased to a sculptural scale, for a site-specific location.

16th century astrolabes

COMMISSIONS

ASTROLABE


<< previous next >>


Form study drawings, graphite on mylar

COMMISSIONS

ASTROLABE

<< previous next >>



Astrolabe installation day view Skylight study

COMMISSIONS

ASTROLABE


<< previous next >>


Drawings for Astrolabe suspension

COMMISSIONS

ASTROLABE


<< previous next >>


Astrolabe installation views

COMMISSIONS

ASTROLABE


<< previous next >>


Astrolabe detail of glass etching

COMMISSIONS

ASTROLABE


<< previous next >>


Astrolabe night view

COMMISSIONS

ASTROLABE


LIGHTING



PROFILE | BIO

Alison Berger in the studio

BIO

Alison Berger is an artist whose medium is light and whose material is glass. Whether designing light fixtures, objects, furnishings or large-scale sculptures, she uses age-old glass blowing techniques to create glass forms that transcend time and capture light. Derived from historic forms that have been stripped down to their essence, her work feels simultaneously old world and modern.

Born in Dallas, Texas, Alison Berger is trained as an architect. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and continued her studies at Columbia University School of Architecture. After working as an architect for many years, first with Bausman-Gill and Associates, where she collaborated on the award-winning headquarters of Warner Bros. Records in Rockefeller Center, and then with Frank O. Gehry and Associates, Berger began to devote herself to her glass design full time in 1995.


LIGHTING



Apothecary jars

PROFILE | BIO

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Glass captures the process of remembering and as light fades, forgetting. Light is the medium, glass is the material and memory, elusive as it is, is my theme. The work is based on the visual vocabulary that societies create to manifest their beliefs, desires and rituals. Victorian fly traps, fireflies, apothecary jars and devices of measure are examples of the objects that have inspired this work. I am drawn to these pieces because they are simultaneously enigmatic and revealing in what they say about the cultures that invented and utilized them. Rendered in glass, altered in scale and stripped of decoration, their essence is exposed. These pieces represent a reinterpretation that makes them feel contemporary and old world. Like memory itself, these glass objects, sculptures and furnishings transcend time and place. - Alison Berger

Bio

Artists Statement

Process


<< previous next >>Furnace door

PROFILE | PROCESS


<< previous next >>First gather at the furnace Shaping the piece

PROFILE | PROCESS


<< previous next >>Forming the first bubble

PROFILE | PROCESS


<< previous next >>Alison Berger with Jesus Garcia, master gaffer Shaping the molten glass

PROFILE | PROCESS


<< previous next >>Shop tools and calipers

PROFILE | PROCESS


<< previous next >>Perfecting the form

PROFILE | PROCESS


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2007

2006

2005

2008

2009

2010

ALL PUBLICATIONS BY YEAR


Elle Decoration MagazineNovember, 2005 Alison Berger

“I’m always interested in the atmospheric condition of light. It’s more about the scupltural presence than a task light. Glass is about lighting being contained. It becomes a double positive when you have light held ina glass vessel. I like for th elight to be floating inside these chambers.”

Handblown crystal pendants for exerior use, $1,189 each, at Plug, Los Angeles(323) 655-5635.

2002

2001

1999

1998

1997

19951996

2000

2003

2004


Magazine Covers by Year


Forbes Life, Mar. 2010

California Style, Oct. 2009

American Craft, Feb. 2009

Interior Design, Best of Year 2008

Town & Country, Oct. 2008

360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008

Design Life Now: Nt’l DsnTriennial, 2006

Architectural Record, May 2006

Architectural Digest, Mar. 2006

Elle Décor, Nov. 2005

House & Garden, Apr. 2004

Los Angeles Times Magazine, Feb. 9

Flaunt MAgazine, Nov. 2001

New York Times, Home Design M., Fall 2001

Elle Magazine, Jul. 2000

Elle Décor, Sep. 1998

Elle Decoration, Nov. 1997

Axis, Sep. 1997

The Daily Yomiuri Newspaper, Aug. 9

In Style, Mar. 1997

Interior Design, Jun. 1995


+ 2010

+ 2009

+ 2008

+ 2007

+ 2006

– 2005

LA Times, Jun 17, 2004

LA Times Magazine, Feb 9, 2003

NY Times Home Design, Fall 2003

Elle, Jul 2000

+ 2004

+ 2003

+ 2002

+ 2001

+ 2000

+ 1999

+ 1998

+ 1997

+ 1995

Forbes Life, March 2010“Festival of Light” As a child, Alison Berger caught fireflies in a jar, a magic that apparently worked on her: Now all grown up, she captures light in enchanting, often mysterious blown-glass sculptures. “Lights are vessels for illumination,” says the Los Angeles artist. “My work is about holding fine points of light in objects of various densities.

Berger happened upon a glass-blowing studio in her native Dallas as a teenager, started nosing around, and soon began making herself an “unnecessary presence” there. A degree from RISD and work in Frank Gehry’s studio followed, a journey traced in her creations, which combine a draftsman’s discipline with a sculptural fluidity that has landed her works in the Corning Museum of Glass and the Cooper-Hewitt.

Her pieces are also functional – Berger’s artwork, like the pendant fixtures (above left), will (strikingly) light up a room. Among her other projects is the Balance Line collection of potential heirlooms (jars, bowls, vases) for Hermès - unusually, the company allowed Berger to sign each piece – and windows at the Comme des Garçons store in Tokyo.A love of anthropology draws Berger to historical forms: apothecary jars, measuring devices, Victorian-era flytraps. “I study different techniques and come up with my own idea of these centuries-old vessels. For instance, a Medici barometer that Galileo made or a fourth-century wedding goblet: There’s a mystery to historical objects and what they say about how people lived.” Adds Berger, “I think about how I can strip these things to their essence, then create something new and old at the same time.” – Lorraine Cademartori

PLACE ALL PAGES


Elle Décor, March 2010








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008







Flaunt Magazine, Nov. 2001





Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010

Elle Décor, Mar. 2010


+ 2009


House Beautiful, Oct. 2009

World of Interiors, Sep. 2009

Gloss Magazine, Jul. 2009

Ell Décor, Jul. 2009

California Homes , Feb. 2009


La Times, Feb 2009

Once Upon a Chair, Jan. 2009

+ 2008


Metropolitan Home, Sep. 2008

360, Summer 2008

Interiors, Jun. 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008

Elle Décor Mar. 2008

Western Interiors & Design, Jan. 2008


+ 2007

World of Interiors, Dec. 2001

Metropolitan Home, Oct. 2007

Chicago Tribune, Sep. 16, 2007

World of Interiors, Jan. 2007

+ 2006

Wallpaper* On-line, Nov. 2006


West - LA Times, Sep. 17, 2006

Los Angeles, Jul. 2006

Archtectural Record, May 2006


Metropolitan Home, Feb. 2006

Design Lie Now, Jan. 2006

– 2005


Elle Décor, Oct. 2005

La Home Design, Mar. 2005

House Beautiful, Feb 2005

+ 2004

Western Interiors, Sep, 2004

California Home + Design, Sep. 2004

Angeleno, Sep. 2004

La Times, Jun. 17, 2004

Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004


California Style, October 2009








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003

La Times, Feb. 9, 2003

+ 2002

LA Architect, Jul 2002

Fine Furnishings, May 2002

La Times, Mar. 2002

+ 2001

Gallery Guide, Dec. 2001

Flaunt, Nov. 2001

New York Times - Home Design, Sep. 2001

Architectural Digest, Jun. 2001

Hermès, Spring 2001

Elle Décor, Feb. 2001

+ 2000


+ 1999


+ 1998

Wallpaper* Magazine, Nov. 1998

New York Magazine, Oct. 1998


+ 1997

Elle Décor Germany, Nov. 1997

Glass + Art, Sep. 1997

Axis, Sep. 1997

Daily Yomiuri Japanes Newspaper, Aug. 1997

Exhibition Comme Des Garçons, Jul. 1997

Town & Country, Apr. 1997

In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1995


PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009








La Times, Feb 2009


+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

House Beautiful, October 2009

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009








Los Angeles Times, Feb 28, 2009


+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

The World of Interiors, September 2009









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Gloss Magazine, July 2009









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Elle Décor, July 2009









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Los Angeles Times Magazine, February 9, 2009Heart of Glass“I used to peek through the alley fence in my Dallas neighborhood and watch these guys blowing glass,” says artist Alison Berger, who was a teenager at the time. “I was fascinated. They took me in and showed me how.” Berger likens the process to “jumping off a diving board, catching a ball and throwing it to someone before you hit the water. There is an incredible precision, timing and choreography involved in glassmaking.” While most blown glass is a simple extrusion, Berger’s innovative pieces are a complex fusion of blown and cast glass, often with an interior chamber. Three of her fused pieces are included in the prestigious Corning Museum of Glass 20th century design collection in New York.

Memory is the theme that runs through the artist’s vessels as well as her lighting. Victorian fly traps, military hat forms and measuring devices are objects that have inspired her. “Conceptually, I look at forms used during different periods of history and how they indicate the times in which people lived. I take the form and reinterpret it in glass, minus the decoration.” Berger has created numerous pieces for film sets and music videos. For 1998’s “Practical Magic,” she devised a laboratory of funnels, colanders and scales in which the film’s witches concoct potions. For the Madonna music video “Bedtime Stories,” she created a futuristic glass IV. When Hermès commissioned Berger to design an oil and vinegar set three years ago, she was inspired to create “Balance Line,” a collection of modern everyday objects such as salt and pepper shakers, cereal bowls, cream and sugar holders, wine decanters and wine cups. “I wanted to create modern heirlooms – what my great-granddaughter might collect in the middle of the 21st century.” – Barbara Thornburg

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

California Homes, February 2009









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

American Craft, February/March 2009The Very Bearable Lightness of Being “The thread that runs through all my work is light,” Alison Berger explains. “How light is contained and captured and reflected and refracted, disappearing as it gets darker, coming forward as perhaps a beam of sun comes through. That’s really the encapsulation of what weaves everything together.”

Using glass as her primary medium and the past as her inspiration, the Los Angeles-based artist has explored her fascination with light in a stunningly diverse and ever-evolving body of work-vases, sculptures, drawings, lighting, site installations. Blurring boundaries long before it became a trend, she’s moved easily and with considerable success between the worlds of art, craft, design, architecture, fashion and film, with technical mastery and a sure vision as her constants. She draws from myriad influences and eras – fourth-century Roman glass, baroque floral still lifes, old scientific instruments, her own flea-market finds – to create timeless narratives. Whatever the scale or format, her objective remains the same: history reinterpreted, concept distilled to essence.

Like her work, Berger radiates a refined complexity. A youthful 45, she’s slim and elegant, with a pared-down, unfussy personal style. Her manner combines the expansive friendliness of a native Texan, the energy and intellectual intensity of an erstwhile New Yorker, and the mellow openness of the Angeleno she has been for some 15 years now.

Living in L.A. she says, allows her to be consistently “enveloped in light.” Her studio, in a 1920s building in West Hollywood, is white-walled and pristine yet warm and atmospheric, rich in architectural detail, a contemporary space redolent with vintage charm. All around the reception/office area are her vessels and objects – crammed in an antique cabinet or arranged on tabletops, illuminated here and there by her light fixtures and by candles she likes to burn even on sunny Southern California days, often to create a quiet mood when she’s drawing (“The power of lighting,” she observes, “is staggering”). Upstairs is her immaculate work space, with drawing tables, models of work in progress, and a balcony overlooking a lushly overgrown courtyard, a palm tree, and beyond, postcard views of the Hollywood Hills.

She shows a visitor samples from her new collection of hand-blown crystal vessels for the L.A. design emporium Blackman Cruz. They’re modern and deceptively simple, exquisitely evocative, heavy in more ways than one. Some give the illusion of being filled with water. One has a thick folding lip and number fragments etched onto it, suggesting an old beer bottle factory, a faced label from days gone by. Another is etched with Da Vinci’s writing on water and how it flows. “They’re about a secret underneath, a little story, a message in a bottle,” Berger explains, picking up another, cloudy-looking pieces, “and here, the idea that there’s condensation on the glass.” Wait – that’s not real moisture? This reaction delights her. “No! It’s solid form. I just finished the surface in a way that makes it look like it’s been taken out of the freezer. Isn’t that fun?”

Fun indeed, but Berger and her glassblowing team, with whom she works in her hot shop downtown, labor long and hard to achieve this subtle magic. “The truth about any art and design is, it’s a discipline and you work at it every day,” she says. “You have an assignment and you have to crack the code of it.” A strong work ethic has been key to her success, along with instinct, initiative and a right place/right time embrace of opportunity.

Berger began her odyssey as a teenager in Dallas. “So I’m riding my bike,” she recalls, “going down an alley, and I see something through the fence and I’m like, ‘What’s going on here?’ I park my bike and literally hoist myself over the fence. And there are these guys blowing glass.” Drawn to the fire, she learned the basics at this little shop, then a few years later studied glass and architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. The RISD approach emphasized “ a collage of resources, an intellectual understanding of the history of art, and an academic understanding of how to reinterpret it in your

PLACE ALL TEXT &PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2009









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Once Upon a Chair, January 2009









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Town & Country, October 2008Made to Order

Alison Berger’s architectural training, and an apprenticeship with glass master Dale Chihuly, taught her the captivating power of light’s interaction with glass. The L.A.-based designer describes her work as “historic forms stripped down to their essence,” a phrase that suits this pendant shade etched with translated writings of Leonardo da Vinci (right; to the trade, $6,500). One recent commission incorporates photo “slides” into a chandelier (top right; price on request for similar work). 323-650-5212; alisonbergerglassworks.com.









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Metropolitan Home, September 2008









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

360, Summer 2008Deep in the Art of L.A.Light FantasticAlison Berger

An inverted lead crystal bell hangs from the ceiling; tight lines of etching circle the globe, adding a delicate texture to the slick surface. Flip the light switch, though, and you’re engulfed in a world of words, shadows cast onto the walls by the etchings. The text is drawn from the sketchbooks of two masters, Leonardo da Vinci and the creator of the chandelier, Alison Berger. Glass and light and shadow are the raw materials Berger has been molding into art for 25 years, as she pushed the ancient craft of glassblowing into new sculptural realms. Her creations have been shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial.

Berger has a studio in West Hollywood but creates her pieces in a gritty glassworks in Compton. The work is painstaking; some commissioned chandeliers can take two years to complete and cost well into six figures. But she also sells hand-blown objects in the $1,000 range through design stores in Los Angeles. Whether it’s commissioned or made-to-order for the stores, the work is always signed by the artist. Etched, that is. alisonbergerglassworks.com – Lisa Rosen

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Interiors, June 2008









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Fulcrum, Jun 2008 This Los Angeles-based designer sheds light on glass.

Some like it hot. Alison Berger likes it at 2500 degrees: the temperature at which a glassworker’s furnace burns. As a teenager in Dallas, Berger came across glassblowers working in a crafts shop, and was instantly mesmerized by the technique. She studied historical glassblowing techniques at the Rhode Island School of Design, and later architecture at Columbia University. Berger apprenticed with glass sculptor Dale Chihuly, and in her 25-year career has worked with architecture and design firms ranging from Frank O. Gehry and Associates to Roman & Williams, creating both lighting designs and barware collections. As glass is a “fluid medium,” according to Berger, each of her works is by its nature unique. She treasures such accidental variations as bubbles and warps. If there is a common thread to her pieces, it is, she says, that “they feel like they have a history to them.” –Gregory Cerio









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Elle Décor, March 2008









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004










360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

The World of Interiors, December 2007

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Metropolitan Home, October 2007









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Chicago Tribune Magazine - Home Design, September 16, 2007









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

The World of Interiors - Design Week Special - January 2007









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Wallpaper* On-line, November 2006









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Elle Décor, November 2006









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

West Magazine - Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2006Alison Berger

“I’m always interested in the atmospheric condition of light. It’s more about a sculptural presence than a task light. Glass is about light being contained. It becomes a double positive when you have light held in a glass vessel. I like for the light to be floating inside these chambers.” Handblown crystal pendants for exterior use, $1,180 each, at Plug, Los Angeles, (323) 653-5635.









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Los Angeles Magazine, July 2006









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Architectural Record, May 2006An L.A. Artist Captures Light in GlassGlass artist Alison Berger describes her recent work as “a nice balance between architecture and art.” Berger has not only practiced architecture on both coasts – first with Bausman-Gill and Associates and then briefly with Frank O. Gehry and Associates – but she ahs more than 25 years of glassblowing experience. During her career she has apprenticed with sculptor Dale Chihuly, worked as a prop maker for films and videos, and become the first American designer to create a line of glass accessories for Hermès. Inspired by the Roman and Victorian eras and “instruments used to calibrate the ephemeral,” her designs range from small glass objects to large-scale sculptures, including an 8-foot astrolabe. Berger’s handblown crystal glass light fixtures are sold through Holly Hunt showrooms nationwide and Plug Lighting in Los Angeles.Architectural Record: How does living in L.A. inspire your work?

Alison Berger: There is a really great quality of light. My office, where I do a lot of designing, is filled with light all day long, which really helps me study the glass. I mark time passing as the light moves throughout the studio. That’s the advantage of being in Los Angeles – more days are sunny than not. What also inspires me about being in Los Angeles is access to the amazing diversification of manufacturers that are here.

AR: Who are some of your design collaborators in L.A.?

AB: One of my favorite metal fabricators in DEC Fabricators in Cerritos, California. They do high-end architectural metalwork, and they are willing to do one-offs and to really work with me on commissions and limited runs, which is always a challenge with manufacturers who want to run it at 500. What I find in Los Angeles is they are a lot more accessible when you show up at their door. They are willing to get excited and involved with something that’s a limited run.

AR: The Roman Ring floor lamp (above left) is based on a 5th-century glass-blowing technique. How do you research your glassmaking methods?

AB: I have these art books from old museum collections, and I look at the picture and try to figure it out. There is no one around I can turn to and ask “how did they do that?,” so there is a lot of guesswork involved. And sometimes surprises come that I wasn’t going for, that are a lot more interesting than I had hoped.

AR: What do you find most appealing about handmade glass objects?

AB: You get this beautiful quality, like the mark of the tool, small imperfections, and striations or bubbles – like when you go to the flea market and see a beautiful glass. That’s the “capture” and quality I try to maintain in producing works now. The best compliment I get is when people come to the studio ask what flea market I got the pieces at. And I go, “Okay, great?”

Top left to right: The Roman Ring floor lamp is available at Holly Hunt; the limited-edition Word Pendant is available through Holly Hunt and Plug Lighting; and the Bell Light pendant is sold exclusively through Plug Lighting. – Rita Catinella Orrell

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Architectural Digest, March 2006The FountainheadCommissioned by Brad Pitt through Plug Lighting, Alison Berger’s sculptural chandeliers are functional explorations of history, in light, glass and bronze. The Astrolabe (right) is a reinterpretation of a 16th-centural device used to calculate the position of the stars for sea travel. Magnifying lenses, etched glass, brass and bronze make up the heavily engineered piece. The Crystal Sphere chandelier (above) echoes oil lamps that illuminate a Turkish mosque.Plug Lighting, 8017 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046323-653-5635; www.pluglighting.com









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Metropolitan Home, February 2006









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Design Life Now - National Design Triennial 2006Her medium is light, her material is glass: that is how glass designer Alison Berger describes her craft. Introduced to glass blowing as a curious teenager in Dallas, Texas, Berger took a circuitous route to her chosen profession. She received a fine-arts degree at the Rhode Island School of Design, attended architecture school at Columbia University, then worked with a number of architects, including Fronk O. Gehry and Associates, until 1995, when she began to devote herself full-time to glass design.

Berger’s glassworks are like centerpieces in a room devoid of decoration, except for the light that the pieces attract and ultimately refract. Glass Slide Chandelier resists being categorized as decorative. The turn-of-the-twenties-century glass slides that comprise the chandelier depict portraits as well as industrial, agricultural, and architectural scenes – a light box which lures us with imagery from the past while providing a timeless and contemporary structure.

Berger’s inspirations for both her lighting and glass vessels range from bell jars and apothecary shapes to scientific beakers and glass jars in which she used to capture fireflies as a child. A kindred spirit of Bauhaus designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld, she finds beauty in the bulb and in the subtlety of light, as exemplified by her hand-blown crystal pendants, in which bulb, shade, and light appear as one.

Berger is guided by memory – not only of personal experience but also of centuries-old glassblowing techniques that are now virtually extinct. Bubbles and other imperfections intrinsic to glass are neither romanticized nor hidden in Berger’s works, but rather honestly reflect the nature of the material.

About forty percent of Berger’s work is on commission, some of it from actors who have seen her work on stage sets for films and music videos like Practical Magic (1998, Warner Brothers), Tank Girl (1995, MGM), and Madonna’s Bedtime Stories (1995). Her passionate, almost spiritual attachment to her medium has earned her an enthusiastic following. For those who own one of her works, Berger’s message is clear: “The pieces are at home waiting for you; they act as a quiet beaon.”

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Elle Décor, November 2005Elle Deco International Design Awards LightingAlison Berger Glassworks

Alison Berger’s elegant and restrained lighting manages to evoke science as well as magic. Her hand-blown crystal pieces are as evocative of summer camps as they are of Machine Age forms of the 1930s and ‘40s. The designs are a result not only of her rigorous architectural training – she studied at Columbia and briefly works with Frank Gehry – but also of her girl-hood hobby of glassblowing, which she began when she was 15. She lists as her inspirations scientific apparatuses, bell jars, apothecary shapes, funnels, and beakers, but then she adds, “My lighting was initially inspired by fireflies that I used to collect and put in glass jars to save them.”

Yet the Los Angeles-based artisan also knows design history and skills that date back 500 years. “I take glassblowing tech-niques that are basically dead,” Beger says, “and bring them back to life.” The lamps are crafted by hand, so each is slightly different. She refers to them as “brothers and sisters, instead of perfectly matching.” Clearly, Berger is as interested in meta-phorical illumination as literal. Her designs are an unlikely mix of the practical and the poetic. “My lighting is more atmo-spheric,” she says, “the kind of fixtures meant to be on all the time, like candlelight. The pieces are at home waiting for you: They act as a quiet beacon.”

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Elle Décor, October 2005









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Los Angeles Magazine - Home Design 2005, March 2005









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

House Beautiful, February 2005









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Western Interiors and Design, Septamber 2004









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

California Home + Design, September 2004

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Angeleno, September 2004









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2004









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Dwell, April 2004









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

House & Garden, April 2004









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2010



+ 2009










+ 2008



360, Summer 2008


Fulcrum, Jun. 2008




+ 2007





+ 2006









– 2005





+ 2004



Angeleno, Sep. 2004


Dwell, Apr. 2004


Agneleno, Mar. 2004

Angeleno, March 2004

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003

Los Angeles Times, Feb. 9, 2003

+ 2002



Los Angeles Times, Mar. 2002

+ 2001


Metropolitan Home, Nov/Dec 2001

Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998

Wallpaper*, Nov. 1998



+ 1997

Elle Decoration - Germany, Nov. 1997


Axis, Sep. 1997

Daily Yomiuri Newspaper - Japan, Aug. 1997



In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


Los Angeles Times Magazine, February 9, 2003

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


LA Architect, July/August 2002 Alison Berger has loved glass since she caught fireflies in jars as a kid. But the route to her present lighting design work was circuitous. She studied glass blowing when she was 15, went to RISD for it, but then couldn’t see a way to make a living t what she loved. So she studied cultural anthropology, then architecture, then moved from NY to LA to work with Frank Gehry, then switched to set design for videos. She started making glass components for the sets, and actors and directors started asking to buy the atmospheric pieces. “In a very passive-aggressive, unbeknownst to me self-serving way it led me to do more and more glass.” She finally made one more switch, to creating her own line of glass objects, informed as much by the history of glass work as those firefly jars. She sees imperfections as “perfect aspects of the glass, the way wood has grain.” Her work has bubbles, and marks from the tools. “What’s fascinating about glass blowing is that the same tools are being used now that the Phoenicians used, it hasn’t improved since then. When they figured it out, they figured it out.” – Lisa Rosen










360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995



Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2002








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995



Metropolitan Home, November/December 2001








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995



Flaunt, November 2001








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995










360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


New York Times, Home Design Magazine, Fall 2001Heart of GlassAlison Berger’s passion for designing crystal borders on obsession. Frances Anderton seeks to illuminate.

To Philip Larkin, the English poet, language alone could not describe light. “Rather than words comes the thought of high windows,” he wrote. “The sun-comprehending glass…”

In Los Angeles, Alison Berger experiments with ways to comprehend the sun. Her home studio is a radiant showcase, as well as a laboratory in which to investigate how glass defines light and space.

On a recent day, Berger, thin and chic, with cheekbones as precise as cut crystal, is austerely in sync with her surroundings. As a designer of limited-edition lamps and vessels both practical and ornamental, Berger resolved in 1995 to be “one of those 10 people” who could make her living as an artist. She got her wish. The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., now has three of her pieces. Her retail line is available in design stores and, beginning this month, at Bergdorf Goodman in New York and Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills. Hermès commissioned an exclusive line of Berger’s crystal tableware, the Balance Collection. And Holly Hunt showrooms sell her lighting designs.

But Berger’s work glows with more than commercial possibilities. Glass borders on an obsession with her, a passion that began in her family’s glass-walled house in Dallas. She started blowing glass at age 15. After attending the Rhode Island School of Design, she joined the studio of the glass artist Dale Chihuly before studying architecture at Columbia University. Berger worked as an architect in New York, then for Frank Gehry in Los Angeles. She left architecture for movie-set design, turning to glass full time when her clients kept asking her to make pieces for their sets.

Proof of Berger’s obsession: the 1920’s-vintage Los Angeles apartment that until recently was her home. (A few months ago, she moved her furniture and glass – carefully – to West Hollywood.) Her aesthetic is fundamentally ascetic: white walls, wooden floors, black leather furniture. But glass imparts a liquid beauty, blurring the rooms’ hard lines. The studio is shot through with light bent by glass bottles, screens, even a glass-topped stool. “Space is transformed through glass,” she says, “by the way it acts like a beacon to draw in the light.”

Floor-to-ceiling windows send light through a glass-paneled screen, which is illuminated by a glass-shaded lamp. (“Lampshade” cannot be the right word: Berger’s glass cones warm, rather than subdue, the light.) An antique lawyer’s cabinet is loaded with lead-crystal vases, decanters, amphorae and bowls – a hip revision of the midcentury cabinet that turned a middle-class family’s crystal into museum pieces. – Frances Anderton

Berger often designs with the sun’s cycle in mind. “I could look at a piece like this,” she says, pointing to an exquisite bottle made of hollow glass fused to a cast base, “and say that at the end of the day, the light comes down and mades this part brilliant.”

Berger eschews fussiness. Her pare-down aesthetic is especially apparent in her clean-lined reworkings of the vessels of ancient Greece and Rome. At the same time, she embraces guild-style craftsmanship over modernist standardization. In workshops in East Los Angeles, a few skilled workers create her pieces. Some objects, like the fused bottle, which required a previously untried technique, take months to develop. “These cannot be done with molds,” she says. “They are almost a defiance of mass production.”

Berger’s work and environment reflect, in part, the current tendency to enshrine and sanctify precious domestic objects. But they also express her genuine, almost spiritual attachment to her medium, for which this space of “sun-comprehending glass” is the only proper temple.

PLACE ALL PAGES


Architectural Digest, June 2001








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995











360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995



Elle Décor, February 2001








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


Elle Magazine, July 2000 A Touch of GlassAlison Berger’s glassworks have appeared in Comme des Garçons’ Tokyo store and on the big screen. Now she’s collaborating with Hermès.

It’s not a hot new yoga school. And it’s not the latest self-help manual on stress management. The Balance Line is a debut line of glass objects for the home from Hermès. The 162-year-old French luxury-goods company teamed up with Alison Berger – an artist, architect, and a production designer who works in glass – to “create the new heirlooms: everyday objects like Grandma’s silver that become more valuable as they age.” The results include oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, and cereal, milk, and sugar sets; water jugs; and thick water glasses that Berger likens to “balls of crystal.”

“There’s an old Hermès saying that only the horse knows how the saddle fits,” says Berger. With that in mind, the Texas native set out “to balance old and new, to marry history and ritual with function,” and to create pieces that feel as if they belong in one’s hand. “They don’t feel like anything that’s on the market today,” adds Berger, who wanted her creations to be as heavy as possible without being cumbersome.

Renaissance still lifes, as well as paintings by Caravaggio and Rembrandt, in which glass objects seem to float atop the tables on which they are set, inspire the thirty-six-year-old, who dreams up most of her pieces in her glass-walled Los Angeles home. There, everything except the bed is on wheels. Studies of magnifying glasses and other reflective surfaces decorate wooden and metal carts, which Berger pushes and pulls around her rooms, following the sunlight.

“Glass is light contained,” explains Berger, who is so “endlessly fascinated by how the two interact” that she designs pieces for specific hours of the day. An opaque piece, for example, is better suited to the intense but indirect light of midday, while a transparent design shows off the suffused but direct light of the late-afternoon sun streaming into a window.

Berger’s obsession with glass started early. A hyper teenager, at sixteen she scaled a fence to check out the flames shooting from a kiln, introduced herself to the owners, and began learning how to blow glass on the spot. She went on to study art at the Rhode Island School of Design and architecture at Columbia University. Since then she has worked on projects ranging from the Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock movie Practical Magic to an installation at Comme des Garçons’ Tokyo store.

The Balance Line of Hermès’s Art of Living collection sells for between $320 and $1,240 at Hermès’s flagship stores in New York and Paris. Berger’s other designs, including a light based on fireflies caught in glass jars, and one-of-a-kind glass sculptures, are sold at Talavara, NYC, and The Furniture Company in New York. – Nicole Phelps

PLACE ALL PAGES


The World of Interiors, December 1999








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995



Wallpaper* Magazine, November 1998








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995



New York Magazine, October 1998








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995










360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


Elle Decoration Magazine, Germany, November 1997In Venice, California, the glass artist designs vases and bottles with their own particular inner life: Zeitgeist in the bottle.

“My creative background is architecture,” says Alison Berger, “my objects are like buildings: the inside may look fairly differ-ent from what one would expect from the outside.” This summer Rei Kwakubo from Comme des Garçons presented the art-ist’s work in her Tokyo showroom for 3 months. Alison Berger’s work is regularly sold in fine stores such as Fred Seal in Los Angles, Takashimaya in New York and Quartier 206 in Berlin. The glass objects range from DM 400 to DM 2500.

So far, Alison Berger has not succeeded in transforming the scent of a Madeleine into a piece of art, but it would not e sur-prising if she were able to. In a craft where the integrity is jeopardized by the impact of Murano Kitsch and “mouth blown” mass production, the 34-year-old glass artist has the rank of a Marcel Proust amongst romance novelists. Time and memory are the central themes of her collection of about 40 unique pieces. One of her vases for instance draws its inspiration from Roman drinking horns, old-Syrian wedding glasses and other antique goblets. “A history of drinking,” is the artist’s explana-tion.

A sequence of sensually shaped lamps resembles containers which the artist as a young girl had used to catch lightning bugs back in Texas: the pieces are often created from a very private approach.

The restless artist has neither the patience nor the time for polite explanations.

“The world,” she states, “for me is like a gigantic flea market, anything can capture my enthusiasm, ranging from Greek tear vases to Victorian fly traps or tools for hat and glove makers.” There is nothing out there that would not have the potential to be picked up by Alison’s imagination and be captured in crystal.

The result is a piece of art that offers a sensual experience with or without cultural insider knowledge.

The balanced proportions of a Berger bottle or vase generates an aura akin to an extraordinary painting.

Alison Berger studies art and architecture in Providence and New York. In 1988 she started to work with the renowned architectural firm Bausman-Gill Associates. Later on she moved to Venice to work on a project in Hannover by star architect Frank Gehry. After the completion of a few commissions as an independent designer for the film industry (including “Tank Girl” and “Bedtime Stories”), she started her own studio. She works in a bungalow located on a small street in Venice, sur-rounded by wood, glass and lush hibiscus plants.

The house has a transient aura, as if everything was ready for a moving van to arrive. That has its reasons: “I miss New York everyday,” says Alison.

“The pieces are a difficult combination of poured and blown glass that makes the fabrication so tricky and causes 2 of 5 at-tempts to fail. The challenge is to find as many surprising ways as possible to carve out the inside of the shape. It is just like as in architecture, the inside of a building can be fairly different from what one would expect from the outside. My back-ground is architecture, not craftsmanship.”

PLACE ALL PAGES


Glass and Art, September 1997








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


Axix Magazine, September/October 1997Memory is the Theme of Glass and LightThis year’s Comme des Garçons Fall and Winter season begins in collection with Alison Berger’s installation. In the past, Comme des Garçons has presented the installation of many unique artist – the likes of Daniel Buren, J. R. Soto, and Cindy Sherman – as novel show window for their Aoyama shop. This time they’ve chosen a young glass artist virtually unknown in Japan: Alison Berger. Her products are influenced by 16th century science and contain a longing for the science – enveloped in an atmosphere suggestive of experimental apparatus – that was embraced by society at the time. Ms. Berger, who studies architecture at Columbia University, has also worked on projects at the architectural firm Frank O. Gehry and Bauseman-Gill Associates. Ms. Berger, who was so attracted by their sculptured architecture that she approached the company on her own, says architecture and glass are both “light.” Attracted by shading woven by light, she gives form to the shadows people are apt to overlook. She says the long history of glass makes creating something new with glass a challenge. Not only did she learn the methods of glass at university, she also studied them on her own through researching works of the past in museums. Ms. Berger not only revives the techniques of old, but continually attempts to create something truly new. She has independently combined methods of glass blowing and glass forming. Though she makes product sketches she doesn’t necessarily finish the works as planned. The sketches are just to map out techniques used in making the product. She says that there are times it’s wiser to let one’s hands do the thinking. She creates the works in a give-and-take dialogue with the glass. Ms. Berger was also once involved in design and production of glass products under the guidance of Dale Chihuly, a recognized master of glass art. “There’s no difference in the way we use materials, they’re both organic expressions of nature. I try to express light on the theme of human artifacts, and Mr. Chihuly expresses nature through color and form. That’s the only difference.” “This installation is really exciting. That’s because Ms. Kawakubo really knows what she wants. She can also understand what others want, and has brought that out in the installation,” continues Ms. Berg, “I have a lot of respect for her, and sensed in her reaction to my work that we share certain ways of looking at things.” Ms. Berger says she’s very excited about her present work, but I’m looking forward to what she’ll do next.” – Akihiro Kubota

PLACE ALL PAGES









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


The Daily Yomiuri Newspaper, August 1997Glassworker Treats Her Art as Architecture For her autumn-winter 1997-98 clothes collection, Rei Kwakuba of Comme des Garçons has taken the same approach used by glassware artist Alison Berger. Based on her concept of architectonics, Kawakubo dismembers existing garments and reassembles them as dresses. Similarly, Los Angeles-based Berger’s glass pieces are interpretations of found objects – Victorian fly traps and measuring devices, for example – that are rendered according to the architectural principles in which she was trained at Columbia University School of Architecture. Perhaps it was these similarities that prompted Kawakubo to display Berger’s glassware at Comme des Garçons’ flagship store in Aoyama, Tokyo. The pieces have been on show since July 11. For some viewers, the objects are reminiscent of the vessels they used during chemistry class back in their student days. However, with their smooth, soft curves, Berger’s vessels do not possess the coldness of most glassware. According to Berger, “The pieces for this collection are based on the visual language that societies create by manifesting their rituals, beliefs and desires.” “Rendered in glass, altered in scale and lacking decoration, these pieces are stripped to their essence. They are not nostalgically replicated, but reinterpreted, like memory itself. All of the pieces are functional while retaining a sculptural presence that echoes and adopts our history,” she said. Each of her pieces is one of a kind and made by hand. Berger creates a prototype of each by herself, and is then assisted by two glassblowers in producing the finished product. At Comme des Garçons, the vessels have been placed directly on a concrete floor surrounded by glass walls – a puzzling sight to visitors and passersby in this exclusive area of Tokyo. But Berger calculated that this would display the vessels most effectively. For the exhibition – her first in Japan – Berger partitioned the available space with sheets of glass, freeing the display from nonessential items and contributing to the striking effects created by the interplay of light and glass. For Berger, who considers herself an interior architect when working with glass, light is an integral part of displaying the completed works, which she does not color. The vessels both reflect light and use it to create optical illusions. “Glass captures the process of remembering and, as light fades, forgetting. Memory is a theme that I explore contextually in architecture, sculpture and design,” Berger said. Kawakubo said she “felt an affinity with Alison’s conceptual approach to design, which especially recalled the autumn-winter 1997 collection insofar as she works with existing forms, breaking them down, transforming them, using them in unexpected ways and mixing them with new forms to create something that is new, strong, and beautiful.” The exhibition will continue until September. For more information, call the shop at (03) 3406-3951. – Chiyono Sugiyama

PLACE ALL PAGES


Exhibition Comme Des Garçons, July 1997








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


PLACE ALL PAGES


Town & Country, April 1997








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995










360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


In Style, March 1997Objects of Desire - treats, treasures & small pleasures Blown Away Glass Act

You don’t need flowers to make a vase by artist and architet Alison Berger look beautiful. The 25 pieces in her collection of glasswork (which also includes vessels and decanters, ranging from $165 to $1,000) hold their own on any shelf. Made using an innovative technique that fuses cast and blown glass, each piece is numbered and signed. Actress Téa Leoni recently purchased the bottle with stopper (right, $495). The case vase (left) is $385, and the inverted amphora (middle) is $840. At Ron Herman/FredSegal on Melrose, 213-653-2568. – Brian Leatart









360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


Elle Décor, September 1996Heart of Glass In Alison Berger’s Venice Beach studio, an alchemist’s still life is illuminated in the flickering light of a small fire: a blue lather-bound edition of Diderot’s 18th-century Encyclopédie, an East Indian apothecary scale weighing out a handful of red leaves, and rows of cast- and blown-glass objects. The latter – spare, essential shapes evocatively suspended within glass chambers – are the creation of Berger, an architect and virtuosic glass artist who is becoming well know in both professional and commercial spheres. (The Corning Museum of Glass recently acquired her wares for its 20th-century design collection, and her limited-edition Glassworks line is sold at a number of high-end department stores.)

Berger, a slim, elegant woman who is known to wear Robert Clergerie shoes while spinning molten glass heated to 2,500°F, studied glass and sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design and architecture at Columbia University. Powerful and resonant, her pieces reveal her undying curiosity about form and possibility. “Glass,” Berger says dreamily, “captures the process of remembering and, as light fades, forgetting.” – Susan Morgan


Interior Design, June 1995Forum New VoicesAlison BergerThe mysterious, elegant glass vessels to the left should cause all Madonna devotees to do a double-take. Even those who channel-surf past MTV might find them evocative, recalling an image that won’t recede from memory. As for that remarkable object to the right, if you haven’t seen Tank Girl yet, it’s worth it for just such drinking horns of plenty as these. The unusual talent responsible for both their design and their fabrication is Alison Berger, a glass artist and sculptor who studies architecture at Columbia and who, prior to her move to the West Coast a few years ago, collaborated on several projects with the former firm of Bausman Gill Associates (most notably the Rockefeller Center offices of Warner Brothers Records published here in September 1992).

Berger, whose film, commercial and video commissions have been increasing, commented that she was hired “as an architectural consultant on sets and ended up doing specific objects to furnish those spaces, which is not so different from what most designers do. In terms of working in film, you design to a narrative. You do research and design from another point of view.”

For the movie Tank Girl – set in an unspecified future when water, not gold, is the most valuable commodity – Berger designed the 7-ft.-high armature with extravagant horn-shaped goblets. “The forms are based on Roman Drinking horns. I was trying to make something more current through the use of my own vocabulary,” she explained.

In the series of vessels, similar to those she created for Madonna’s most recent video, Berger was exploring different material and design issues. “Working in glass, like making architecture, raises the question of boundaries. This series, which consists of 15 designs, explores the use of blown and cast glass together, as well as the possibilities inherent in crafting designs in limited production. Density, solidity, weight, scale and functionality all contribute to form.”

Berger’s glass designs can be seen in Los Angeles at Ron Herman/Fred Segal and in New York at Takashimaya. They are available through Talavera/Aurora Lopez, 50 West 29th St., Loft 10W, New York, NY 1001. – JNLeft: A series of glass forms utilized in Madonna’s Bedtime Stories video.Right: Set pieces from Tank Girl.

Berger is a graduate of RISD. She has studied glass at the Pilchuk School and architecture at Columbia. Her studio is located at 247 Windward Avenue, Venice, Ca 90291, (310) 452-2244.








360, Summer 2008

Fulcrum, Jun. 2008












Axis, Sep. 1997


In Style, Mar. 1997



+ 2003


+ 2002




+ 2001



Flaunt, Nov. 2001





+ 2000

Elle, Jul. 2000

+ 1999


+ 1998




+ 1997



Axis, Sep. 1997




In Style, Mar. 1997

+ 1996


+ 1995


PLACE ALL PAGES


SHOWROOMSHOLLY HUNT

View Alison Berger’sLighting at HollyHunt.com

222 Merchandise Mart PlazaSuite 1728/1844Chicago, IL 60654T 312 661 1900F 312 661 0243

HollyHunt.com

View Holly HuntNational Locations Near You

PLUG LIGHTING

View Alison Berger’sLighting at PlugLighting.com

8017 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046T 323 653 5635F 323 653 5634

PlugLighting.com

BLACKMAN CRUZ

View Alison Berger’sObjects at BlackmanCruz.com

836 North Highland AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90038T 323 466 8600F 323 466 8606

BlackmanCruz.com


CONTACT

PUBLIC RELATIONS

ELIZABETH KUBANY48 Midland BoulevardMaplewood, NJ 07040-1724T 973 761 4117F 973 761 4114

E-mail Elizabeth KubanyE -mail Tianna Webb-Evans

EHKPR Website

GLASSWORKS STUDIO

ALISON BERGER GLASSWORKS INC.1235 Sweetzer Ave., Studio E2Los Angeles, CA 90069T 323 650 5212F 323 650 5213

E-mail the Studio


LOGIN

enter your login code


<< previous next >>


Close Up Glass Detail. Measurements xx xx xx

IN PROGRESS

BOTANY LIGHTING SERIES

Ab website18lo

Documents

Transcript of Ab website18lo