Compelling sculptures
- Ilja creates dynamic sculptural compositions
- His works merge geometric and flowing forms
- He demonstrates excellent craftsmanship
Ilja Bílek works entirely in glass, a material he loves for its myriad qualities – its transparency, reflectiveness, opacity, strength and fragility. Since the mid-1980s he has developed a distinct artistic language based on the compositional qualities of spatial segments of molten glass and glass panels. He is bringing together opposing principles, rethinking new ways of dynamic composition, for example by the intermingling of kindred forms of polyhedrons, often hollow trihedral prisms. A number of the artist's newest sculptures, stereo-metric principles are present only in detail, in the form of cut-glass elements. Until 2017, Ilja Bílek also shared his expertise with students at the J.E.P. University in Ústí n./L., where he was the head of the glass art studio.
Interview
- What was your mission when you were teaching?
- My pedagogical efforts were to incorporate glass, this traditional material, into the context of contemporary art. I wanted to encourage my students to get rid of its pandering effects, aesthetic decorativeness and look for a unique and convincing form for the chosen idea.
- What interests you about glass?
- Working with glass is unpredictable and often brings irreversible moments. To handle it requires mental and manual rationality and discipline, but also creative enthusiasm. The combination of these opposing qualities gives birth to a welcome adrenaline adventure.
- Why are paper models so important in your creative process?
- Paper is an easy-to-process material that can be used to create spatial and proportional connections quite realistically and, at the same time, it calls for the geometric form of the future shape.
- What attracts you to the medium of glass?
- Glass as an optical material combines the potential of both sculpture and painting. What fascinates me the most, however, is how this material, thanks to its unpredictability, is able to shape and retroactively influence the mental potential of the author.
Ilja Bílek is an expert artisan: he began his career in 1965
Where
Ilja Bílek
