Tell us about yourself.
Karen Lise Krabbe (b. 1955) holds an MA in Danish, Spanish and dramaturgy. She has worked with glass since 1997 and has received the Hempel Glass Prize, the Ole Haslund artist grant, first prize in the Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass and funding from the Danish Arts Foundation, among other accolades. In addition to participating in countless group exhibitions, she has held solo exhibitions in a number of galleries, at Glas: Museum of Glass Art in Ebeltoft, Denmark, and at the Hempel Glass Museum in Nykøbing Sjælland, Denmark. She lives and works in Aarhus, Denmark.
What draws you to the material you work with?
Throughout my practice, my work with glass has unfolded in a zigzag process of unstructured basic research and experimentation with a combination of materials, allowing different types of glass to encounter other types of materials, mainly silicates. This approach has resulted in a variety of composites, which I have labelled the Third Material, the Fourth Material and the Fifth Material. In particular, my practice research involving the Fourth and Fifth Materials – both biomaterials – has been an important catalyst in my development of the Sixth Material: Gelled Glass, in which glass powder in combination with a binder and calcium spontaneously gel and produce a dizzying range of possibilities of handling and manipulating the glass in a cold state.
Why are you a member of GAS?
I aim to get in contact with glass makers from around the world and to interchange experience & knowledge