Falling Water – G2-18

Yellow abstract shapes, perhaps suggestive of flowers, occupy the upper sections of Brian Clarke’s ‘Falling Water’ (2018). Imitating fresh paint dripping down a wall, yellow streams of varying thicknesses flow from the flowers to cover almost the entire surface of the stained glass folding screen. If white is often synonymous with transparency, here its opaque quality alters the luminous potential of glass, modifying the way light is projected onto the screen’s surroundings.

This artwork conveys Clarke’s continued attempt to find beauty and a quiet sense of spirituality in everyday life. In ‘Falling Water’ he was captures and replicates the delicate forms and fluid motions of dripping liquids, which streak the expansive white surface creating changeable, dynamic patterns.

This sense of orderly movement is emphasised by Clarke’s innovative use of stained glass within a moveable wooden frame. The screen’s visual impact changes depending on the time of the day, the season or its position in an indoor space. In this folding screen, produced with a technique devoid of lead cames, the yellow lines are liberated on the surface, generating unpredictable colour relations with the white background. Coloured glass becomes autonomous, interacting with light and space in a constant state of transformation.