Great Minds of Design

Solar Stained Glass ~ Sarah Hall ON CBCdocumentary CHANNEL

Monday, April 30th @ 8:00 pm ET

We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Natures inexhaustible sources of energy sun, wind and tide Thomas Edison, 1931
For a thousand years, architectural glass has been an art of light, whether reflecting or transmitting it, letting it pass through white and whole or splintering it into the colours of the rainbow. In her recent work, however, acclaimed Toronto glass artist Sarah Hall has added something modern to the repertoire of glazings near-Infinite play with light: the power to transfigure sunshine into electricity. John Bentley Mays Architecture Critic, Toronto Ms. Halls work contains a distinct Canadian sensibility. Nature, the landscape, even the breath of the wind itself is somehow captured in her work. Her pieces are evocative of a spiritual sensibility, thus adding to their universal power and potency. Virginia Eichhorn Curator, Tom Thompson Art Gallery, Owen Sound Sarah Hall has opened herself willingly to a further and unique extension of her craft: the inclusion of photovoltaic cells in her windows overall design and purpose. She was willing to learn and experiment, moving into quite uncharted terrain. She is, to the best of my knowledge, the only Canadian artist who has taken this step of active collaboration with electronic engineers. The first public result of this collaboration - her windows at Regent College on the campus of the University of British Columbia - will, I am sure, be regarded in future as a seminal installation, showing how in the hands of a masterful artisan the craft can incorporate the oldest and the newest knowledge in one beautiful and functional work. Dr. Ursula Franklin, C.C. FRSC Professor Emeritus, Massey College, University of Toronto

More Solar ~ www.SarahHallStudio.com

Great Minds of Design Series: www.291filmcompany.ca