David Chatt

Statement

I am seduced by the clarity of color and light play found only in glass. I am also drawn to the meditative process and tactile qualities of beadwork. The marriage of glass and thread allows me to bring dynamic qualities to a medium that has traditionally been thought of as rigid and unyielding.

Throughout history nearly every civilization has embraced beadwork in one form or another. Beads have been used to pray and to cast spells. The Zulu people used beadwork to compose love letters. The Chinese use beads to do mathematical calculations. In my work I endeavor to recast this ancient medium in a contemporary fine-craft setting.

Using innovative and nontraditional methods, I sew each individual seed bead to the next, creating a layer of beads that can be a second skin over a rigid form, or a self supporting matrix of beads that is at once structural and dynamic. This process is extremely time-consuming, each piece requiring up to 600 hours to complete, and stands as a direct contradiction to our hurry-up world. My body of work is sculptural, narrative, interactive and three-dimensional.

I am fascinated by the seemingly endless possibilities of this medium and am ever expanding its range by inventing new techniques and using them in ways that challenge the viewer?s preconceived notions of beadwork in the twentieth century.

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