Jimmie Durham. Glass

12.05.2006 - 01.07.2006

Christine König Galerie, Wien / Österreich

„Glass is clear at least. Well, I mean some glass is clear. There is now the status-symbol of un-clear, smoky glass windows in limousines so that the public cannot see the important man inside. Don't you think the clarity of glass has probably been made for better wine over the centuries? If we had no clear glass through which to admire the color, wine might have stayed simply dark and serviceable. So hard, yet so breakable! And when broken, so dangerously sharp! So un-reparable!
It is only a little more than ten years ago that scientists finally made glass a category of matter unto itself.... Before there were three states of matter, liquid, solid and gas. More and more clearly scientists came to understand, that glass is most like a liquid; it does not have the molecular structure of a solid. In fact, it is an extremely slow liquid. It is so slow, that the universe can come to an end before the smallest motion of this liquid can be detected, and therefore it cannot be called a liquid.
It is really no longer very good for architecture, because when a bomb explodes the death by flying glass is horrendous. We'll probably soon have more defensive kind of architecture.“ (Jimmie Durham, 2006)
(Presseinformation: Galerie Christine König)