Essays

2018

Interior Vistas and Crafted Subversions

By Dr Jeffrey Sarmiento
From Under an Equal Sky: Baldwin & Guggisberg at Canterbury Cathedral, 2018.
If I were to describe the work in this exhibition as expertly blown glass amassed in huge, hanging arrangements, one might think I was standing in the foyer of a museum in Seattle or London or a hotel in Shanghai or Venice. Instead I find myself in the Nave of Canterbury Cathedral, a centre of pilgrimage since the 12th century, contemplating the inherent meaning of a vessel – both container and ship.
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Impressions of an Exhibition

By Emma Crichton-Miller
From Under an Equal Sky: Baldwin & Guggisberg at Canterbury Cathedral, 2018.
In May 2018 a marvellous apparition appeared in the Nave of Canterbury Cathedral: a ghostly boat, its outline indicated by one hundred clear glass amphorae, hung as if floating in mid-air.
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2006

Comments about Collecting Criteria

By Monica Guggisberg with Philip Baldwin
For St’Art 2006, organized by ESGAA (European Studio Glass Association).
An exploration of art collecting by private collectors, investors, and museums.
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2004

Ruminations about Craft

By Philip Baldwin
Excerpted from The Beauty of Craft, by Sandy Brown and Maya Kumar Mitchell.
Craft is one of those words full of shadings with various meanings and implications. In its most primary sense, we may say that most of us are bad craftspeople at a lot of what we do, but many of us get good at one or a few things we do. These are often referred to as hobbies. Occasionally they are a way of life, a career, a life's work.
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“Everything Is That Way Because It Got That Way”: An Appreciation of the Work of Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg

By David Revere McFadden
For the Circus of Spheres catalogue.
Read '“Everything Is That Way Because It Got That Way”: An Appreciation of the Work of Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg'

Venini - The Heart of Glass

By Roberto Gasparotto
For the Venini section of the Circus of Spheres catalogue.
I was struck by the mysterious plasticity and the clean lines of the works of Monica and Philip from the very first time I saw them in Frankfurt in 1994. A mixture of Nordic severity and Mediterranean colour, it was difficult to define which tradition the works actually belonged to, for they seemed to bring together the rational characteristics of the Scandinavian tradition and the superb craftsmanship of the Master glass-blowers in Murano.
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2002

Battuto 2002

By Louise Berndt
From the Battuto 2002 exhibition catalogue.
The Italian verb, battere, the action of repeated strokes, is used in so many ways—as surface decoration, as a technique for working metal, as a marker of rhythm, as an indicator of life in heartbeat or pulse rate, as a marker of continuous striving, as a description of a good dunning, or as a gauge of approval in applause. How appropriate that one of its derivatives is the title of this show. Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin’s work embodies so many of its elusive and seemingly contradictory connotations that rather than just describing a technique for working glass “battuto” signifies a way of being, a way of breathing, and expresses the beat of life.
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