Ensemble Vessel V, Ensemble Vessel III, 2018

Edmond Byrne initially studied Glass Design at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, before completing an MA at The Royal College of Art, London in 2010. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and he has won a number of awards including the Dan Klein Memorial Bursary in 2011. Edmond has teaching experience in Irish and UK universities and has worked and travelled across the world attending workshops and seminars including working on the Dale Chihuly glassblowing team in the United States. Currently Edmond is Technical Tutor at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham.

Edmond Byrne’s mould blown glass aims to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. From his large ethereal stacked vessels to signature sprawling tableaux, Byrne’s vessels use the materiality of glass to examine the science and psychology of colour.

‘I am interested in how our minds interpret emotions – a combination of culture and memory which converge from different areas of the mind. Through the exploration of colour, texture and form, I make glass vessels which induce an emotional response in each viewer. In a way they are manifestations of emotions. I do a lot of drawing. My visual inspiration comes through interpreting the marks, gestures and energy of my drawings into glass. I’m intrigued by objects that have a resonance from the past. I add patina and cracks to the glass surface to recreate the weathering of ancient Roman glass. Subconsciously this places my vessels in the past becoming artefacts of the mind. In the ‘Emotion Series’ I stack or juxtapose vessels inside each other to combine different qualities of glass. Emotions come from multiple parts of the mind and in my work this is represented by the combinations of vessels and surfaces and the illusive spaces in between.’

Public Collections include:

Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland; National Museum of Ireland