Installation in the Glass Museum, 2019
“Reijmyre Glassworks has, through its history, produced uranium glass. In the past, the uranium content in uranium glass could be very high, and it was common for glassworks to mix uranium oxide directly into the glass melt, without the kind of safety awareness we have today. What happened to the remnants of this production? Radiation is an invisible part of the contamination in the soil around the glassworks.
In my artistic practice, I often work with the combination of glass and electronics, exploring the material’s properties from both an artistic and a technical perspective. For this project, I have used glass to build a Geiger counter that measures radioactive decay. The glass acts as an electrical insulator within the device’s circuitry, and through its transparency and function the machine makes visible things that are normally unseen.
Measurements of various kinds are an ongoing activity whenever something is being remediated. The glass material I used to make my Geiger counter is recycled glass from Reijmyre’s contemporary glass production. In this way, a kind of cycle is formed, in which contemporary glass from the site and the craft of glassblowing become part of the remediation process. It is a manifestation of a concrete attempt to do something about the situation, but also a form of ritual atonement on my part as a contemporary glassblower.” – Ammy Olofsson
Ammy Olofsson, born in 1988 (Borensberg, Sweden), trained in glass craftsmanship at Kosta Glascenter and later earned both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from Konstfack University of Arts and Design in Stockholm. She is currently active as a glass artist and glassblower in Bro, outside Stockholm, where she runs her studio and glass workshop “Glasbolaget” together with Erika Kristofersson Bredberg.