Squares #175

Vera Molnar and Martin Grasser, Themes and Variations #144

"Kiss You Back" from Portraits with Trame Paris

“These mirrors are a framework to make more art, constantly rendering portraits. Stand in front of that mirror 100 times and you will have 100 new images.” - Martin Grasser PORTRAITS, by Martin Grasser Handcrafted glass in Venice, for Trame Paris, Art Basel, 2023 “Shapes and forms are where I want to focus my attention.” - Martin Grasser “I was commissioned to do a portrait, but I don’t draw like that anymore.” “I’m endlessly fascinated by the relationship between text and image.” “Mirrors are portraits.” “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately… I am not cruel, only truthful” - Sylvia Plath “Mirrors are true. Language is slippery.” - Martin Grasser “The mirror itself is an image, and what it reflects is an image or a portrait.” “The portrait is fragmented and broken up by this image.” “It’s almost like the glass becomes a script inside of a word or phrase.” - Martin Grasser “I had the concept, but I had no glass. I tried to source my own samples, but they were cheap or ugly.” “I met Ismail from Trame on Instagram and shared the idea. Ten days later the most beautiful pieces of glass arrived in the mail.” “I carried this glass around with me for weeks. I would check into a hotel room and spread them out on the dresser.” “With Ismail, we visited Arte Veneziana in Venice, Italy.” “I had a preconceived notion that I would need to work with only one alphabet of colors. But in Venice I saw that ALL the colors were available, and each incredible.” “Originally I wanted to do letter poems. But seeing the glass, the form formed.” “We found the sweet spot between form and meaning. ‘so far so good’ as the markers by which you measure your kids’ height over the years. ‘kiss you back’ feeling lip gloss and nail polish.” “The images are created by a generator.” “When you type into the generator, it creates a font of colors, one for each letter in the alphabet, bundled up into a typeface.” “Only the letters in the…

Love #26

a temporary arrangement of material #75 and #75

From Bright Moments Paris, 2024