The capsule collection Castes was born from the many years of craft experience of the Lavdansky Studio and Fresh.Glass workshops. In this project, the artists of the studios – Dasha Bolkhovitina, Semyon Lavdansky, and Sergey Martynov – reflect through sculptural forms on the phenomenon of mystical light, on subtle and quiet beauty, and on the fusion of tradition, experience, and craftsmanship with the visual language of contemporary art.
Church aesthetics
At the conceptual core of the Castes collection lies a love for ecclesiastical aesthetics, for working with material, and for one’s historical past and national heritage. The black sheen of the glass surfaces – dense and resin-like – combined with silver-plated brass, evokes the image of a cosmic body: unified and jewel-like in its monolithic presence. The research process began with a reinterpretation of the image of the crown on an 8th-century Georgian icon, adorned with precious stones set into castes (stone settings).
Castes, or metal settings used to secure gemstones, became the prototype for the future tables. The brass sheet,
like a gemstone setting, holds and embraces the glass, adopting its shape and revealing its form.
