Casgliadau Arlein

Sculpture in cast optical glass, cube form with flat polished top, front and back faces, the other three faces deeply moulded and irregular, their matt surface coloured turquoise with oxides, air bubbles trapped in the glass just inside the moulded surface.

Reid's work places great emphasis on exploiting the physical and optical qualities of glass, characteristics that this cube piece exploits particularly effectively. He has provided the following statement to accompany this piece:

"If I were to identify a single thread that runs through my work it would be nature. That is the source to which I return for inspiration and fresh material for my work. My current interest is in natural materials which have been worked by craftsmen's hands in the past and are eroding and reverting to nature. The form of the cube is derived from mediaeval stone carving high on Gloucester Cathedral. The Cathedral is being restored and the stonemasons have erected scaffolding giving access to normally inaccessible stonework. This I have cast and used as the starting point for new works.

I work in kiln-cast glass, using various moulding techniques to make the forms and moulds in which I cast my glass. My current work is mainly in optical glass because I like its purity. Firings are long, three weeks is typical, so I can get thickness and depth. When the piece comes out of the kiln it is only the start of the making process. There is much cold-work to be done, grinding, polishing, and sandblasting. The pieces evolve and change at this stage as I respond to what has come out of the kiln. Chance plays its part. The tension between what is planned and controlled and what is unexpected is both creative and disastrous. I don't open the kiln if I am having a bad day. The quality I am after is elusive, impossible to describe, but I know it when I see it."