ARTS-CULTURE cu-arts

Glass artist hones craft while bridging cultures in West Bank, Turkey

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News | 7/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | PETE SMITH

Glass-blowers quickly learn that breaking things is sometimes part of their job description, but for American artist James McLeod, breaking misconceptions and prejudices is the very purpose of his work.

“So many people have misconceptions about the ways other parts of the world work,” said McLeod, an associate professor of fine arts who specializes in glass at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. “Right now we’re working on changing these perceptions through art and education.”

McLeod, 31, is the executive producer of Floating World Projects, a cross-cultural collaboration between Turkish and American artists working in several mediums, including video, audio and glass.

McLeod and his team of artists are working out of Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. He has twice brought his students from America to Istanbul, and he is looking for a way to bring Turkish students to America. But McLeod has not limited his cultural and artistic exploration to Turkey; recently, the artist took a trip to Hebron in the West Bank, where glass-blowing dates back to the 14th century.

According to McLeod, the purpose of Floating World Projects is to unite people from different parts of the world while eliminating many of the misconceptions people have of cultures they are unfamiliar with.

“This project is about what you bring with you and what exists in a city,” McLeod said. “We want to feature things from our perspectives, and from our friends in Istanbul, and illustrate how both see the city.”

For the past four years, McLeod has been coming to Turkey to work on his project with local artists and musicians.

“I just kept coming back,” said McLeod. “At first I thought it would only be one year, then maybe two, but it just kept going. There’s just wonderful people here.”

McLeod's endeavors with Floating World Projects have dealt primarily with graphic imagery on glass. His pieces resemble paintings more than glass work, utilizing a silk-screening technique that allows him to display a wide variety of images. His pieces are laden with bright colors, broad lines, intricate city maps and bits of street signs, among other things.

“We’re really trying to push the content of work in the glass community,” said McLeod.

The Floating World Project will culminate in an installation in New York City, featuring eight time-elapsed videos of both New York City and Istanbul, a variety of music produced collaboratively by Turkish and American musicians, and a selection of about 30 pieces of glass.

[HH] 'A beautiful city, neglected and destroyed'

On his recent trip to Hebron, McLeod described the city as “a beautiful city, neglected and destroyed over time. It could be rebuilt, but this is not a city that is cared about right now.”

Initially, McLeod believed that he would bring new techniques to a country where he thought the art of glass-blowing was practiced with outdated, centuries-old methods. But McLeod's perceptions were once again shattered.

“The first thing I think is that maybe I can bring my information to them and exchange some things,” said McLeod. “Then after sitting and watching the master for six hours, I was like, ‘Wow. I have so much to learn from you.’”

In Hebron, McLeod closely followed Yacob Natsheh, a native glass-blower who has been mastering his craft for nearly 40 years. The al-Natsheh factory, where McLeod observed the master glass-blower, is the oldest glass-blowing studio still owned by the same family in the world. McLeod hopes to return to the al-Natsheh factory and serve as an apprentice there.

McLeod reveled how the al-Natsheh factory used only recycled glass gathered from around the community. At first he was skeptical of the process and asked Natsheh why he didn’t use fresh, clean glass, but then it just seemed to make sense.

“These people have been making beautiful glass out of what they have for thousands of years," McLeod said. "Why would they do anything else?”

In recent years, the glass business in Palestine has taken a hit because of boycotts from Israel and export problems. And problems with the Israeli police have limited the ability of these shops to sell their glass. In spite of this, McLeod is searching for ways to get the international glass community involved with the people of Hebron.

“From a glass perspective, we need to see it, understand it and respect it. We need to connect them to the international community through art and education,” McLeod said. “That’s the next project.”

[HH] Reversing misconceptions

McLeod began his artistic career as an illustrator at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California. He remembers wandering into the glass studio and immediately falling in love with glass. He continued at the Pilchuk glass school in Stanwood, Washington, and graduated with a master of fine arts from New York University. Although his degree was in sculpture, McLeod said he always continued experimenting with glass and remained active in the glass community.

He first came to Turkey in the fall of 2006, where he studied glass-blowing at Cam Ocağı. He returned in 2007 with 20 of his own students. Since then he has established a study-abroad program through the Massachusetts College of Art that brings American students to Istanbul biannually.

Seeing the perspectives of his students change is a treat for McLeod. “Bringing students directly across the world, they come with many misconceptions. It’s great to see them have their perceptions changed, but also to bring back their new attitudes and change others’ misconceptions through their stories.”

McLeod mentioned one student in particular who speaks so frequently of her time in Turkey that her friends think she has just returned. In fact, she came to Istanbul over two years ago.

“[The students], like myself, want to be back here. And that’s great to see.”