I’m fascinated by sculptural representation of the human body, and I’m also pretty distracted by glowing neon lights. There are actually two amazing sculptors combining these interests into awesome neon glass bodies: Jessica Lloyd-Jones and Eric Franklin. Both these anatomical wizards create their sculptures by hand, blowing borosilicate glass and filling it with inert neon and xenon gases. Franklin has created a full skeleton called Embodiment, and LLoyd-Jones has an entire bevy of organs in her Anatomical Neon series to fill it out. Check after the jump for a full set of incredible photos.
Neon Glass Bodies – Like Dropping Acid With Daft Punk
I’m pretty sure having any of these sculptures in your home would be super impractical- not only would you have to be ridiculously careful around them, I’m fairly certain they’d give you nightmares if you forgot to turn them off. I can only imagine waking up to a flickering, ‘beating’ heart glowing in the darkness, or the looming spectre of a skeletal being floating over you, bathed in an ethereal glow. That being said, it’s exactly that imagination that these neon glass bodies kindle in me that I love. It’s even more impressive when you think about the painstaking work that goes into each one. Obviously, glass blowing isn’t something anyone can just pick up and start, but the process behind these sculptures goes a lot deeper than that.
In an interview with Colossal, Franklin outlines the whole creation routine:
Every glass seal has to be perfect, and this piece contains hundreds. Everywhere one tube joins another, or a tube terminates, glass tubes were sealed together. They have to be perfect in order to preserve the luminosity of the krypton. If one rogue molecule gets inside the void of the glass tubing it can eventually contaminate the gas and it will no longer glow. There are times when the holes in the seals are so small that you cannot actually see them with your eyes without the help of a leak detector. Once the glass pieces are ready to get filled with gas, I pull a high vacuum while the glass is hot in order to evacuate any dust or water vapor from the interior surface until there are literally no molecules inside the void of the glass. Then the krypton can be introduced and the glass sealed off. It’s an extremely tedious process, one I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with.
Check out Franklin’s website here, and check out Lloyd-Jones’ website here. Each sculptor has an impressive portfolio, but their neon glass bodies are by far my favorites.
