Life is full of surprising and strangely meaningful encounters. I am inspired by people and their stories. If I were to make short films, I could write scenes for those people or develop them into characters. I actually deal with strong and even conflicting emotions in all my works.
I'm currently making bold and adventurous glass rabbits that rebel against the gloom. It is tantalising to develop these characters and their stories, to distil them and take their features and fates further and further, until certain features take that final, sculptural form in my mind. I wonder what kind of outfit and shape some crazy prankster will get!
My rabbits often play with the uninhibited and I find inspiration in famous iconic elements as well as in familiar everyday life. Maybe this is something that interests and fascinates people about my rabbits.
Perhaps, partly because of my Finnish-Italian roots, I am equally at home in Venice, Nuutajärvi and the Brazilian rainforest. Rabbits are cosmopolitans too: their spiritual birthplaces are all over the world.
However, the origin of these rabbits is not very light. I approached grief and pain from the point of view of what is one's own choice in how we face loss and how we receive what we hear.
Many of my rabbits have a golden ear, which allows them to hear good and difficult things well and correctly.
Is it possible to find something in difficult things that will move you forward and give you strength for the future? My rabbits are dynamic and brave, ready for a new leap.
The rabbits have been part of a phase in which I have wanted to look for lightness, sweetness and beauty behind the sad and horrible facts of life. These will be joined by large-scale, integrated artworks, combining different means of expression.
Gina Salaris's product design is bold and inventive, often coming up with new solutions, whether it's making art or designing glassware.
I don't feel that there are failures, because they are lessons for the next steps and, therefore, valuable.
Salaris also produces small series products to order, such as thin mouth-blown drinking and sparkling wine glasses.
Salaris works together with his workshop team in Nuutajärvi. The unique works are handcrafted by using a variety of glassmaking techniques, such as blowing, casting and moulding. She works on the surface of the glass by etching, sandblasting, silvering and gilding.
Gina Salaris graduated as a glass designer from Häme University of Applied Sciences in 2004 and has been working with glass for almost 20 years.
Salaris's works have been exhibited in Finland and abroad, and she has works in several private collections and Finnish foundations.
IG: @ginasalaris
Artist's website www.ginasalaris.com
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