John Erwin Dillard

John Erwin Dillard will use his residency at S12 to complete Viven Fon (O’ Living Fountain), a glass sculpture made from blown, fused, and flameworked glass. The work takes the form of a steam fountain, with steam travelling through the semi-transparent glass via a copper pipe. Inspired by a musical composition by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), the sculpture explores the connections between human knowledge, creativity, and collective consciousness. 

John Erwin Dillard’s  work is about the intersection of magic, technology, spirituality, and science. In his practice he utilizes these four overlapping systems to reimagine what he believes sculpture can be. Sculpture is one’s own imaginative vision, so powerful, meaningful, that it punctures reality and proliferates into the world. In a physics all our own, sculpture is a testament to the creative force of human beings. Through collective intelligence, science, and vision a new form of life is manifested. By imbuing non-living matter with our own life force it becomes neither living nor non living.

John Erwin Dillard (BFA,MFA) B. Gulfport, MS, USA 1995. Exhibiting nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, BE Prive, NYC and Taoxichuan Arts Center, PRC. Participating in residencies at Penland School of Craft,George Enescu University of the Arts among others. Citing sculpture as “ a site where magic, technology, spirituality and science are merged to imagine new expectations of reality.”

The residency is supported by the Alexander tutsek-stiftung.