Glass By Butler

aka

Jennifer Hackett

Born in 1983, South London

Lives and works in Rome, Italy

A contemporary freeform stained glass artist, Jennifer uses the Tiffany technique exclusively. Her work is intricate yet large scale, and explores the human experience of life and what it encounters in nature, using fractals and geometric shape. 

The underlying themes of her work include human trauma, growth and perseverance. It also includes the celebration of nature, to highlight the importance of its preservation. Jennifer uses colour and interlocking geometric shape to portray the flowing journey through life and the importance of protecting one’s own mental health: glass being a powerfully visceral medium to express the fragility of so many things.

Jennifer uses a combination of glass and oil painting and often adopts engraved mark making and pressed flowers within her work. Not only does this help her to paint a picture of the human experience, this celebration of nature highlights the fragile relationship we have with it.  Jennifer’s hyper realist paintings inspire her glasswork, as she is an artist who searches for clarity and believes glass can add depth and luminosity to a piece like no other medium.

 Jennifer’s large-scale Tiffany pieces are unique as they build like puzzle pieces to come together and form a large picture. Not only does this create an immersive intricate experience for the viewer, but it gives them the freedom to organise the piece in a way that is most satisfying and meaningful for them. Just as music fills the senses, these ritualistic glass tapestries are composed with colour reminiscent of emotion.

The geometric shapes within her work, allow Jennifer the freedom to adapt the artwork into a flexible installation. So given a narrow or wide display space, the works will interlock into the given area.

Since 2020 Jennifer has been moving her glasswork towards her method of painting, in an attempt to reach hyper realism in glass. Staying with her love of geometry and natural fractals, she explores nature in macro; magnifying dragonflies. Dragonflies have always been symbolic to her, linking into her working themes of process in life and flow. These creatures are an embodiment of the ability to change and grow as life progresses. Whilst working on her glass dragonfly wings in 2020 they came to symbolise for her the BLM movement and the importance of the ability to change opinion and behaviour when new information is gleaned. It is hoped that they can be used to symbolise this publicly.

Just two short years since taking part in a workshop with the Stained Glass Museum and beginning her glass career, Jennifer was asked to create a (geometric) series for their exhibition “Then to Now” in 2018. Since then, she has gone on to create large scale contemporary Tiffany pieces that are currently being exhibited in the historic centre of Rome, Italy.

The use of the glass medium itself, is used to highlight the fragility of mental health and balance of nature. Her use of geometric shape helps paint the importance of flow through life, as fractals in nature help it persevere and thrive despite difficult odds.

The repeated and consistent nature of wrapping copper foil around hundreds of tiny pieces if geometric shaped glass feed into the ritual of intimately recording an experience; much like weaving a tapestry in medieval times. Jennifer uses a contemporary colour palette as a means to express emotion and the modern experience. 

Recent projects include the creation of large-scale intricate dragonfly wings in an attempt achieve hyper realism in the Tiffany glass technique usually only found in photography or oil painting.