Juli Bolaños-Durman Studio

WILD FLOWERS Collection

Juli Bolaños-Durman X Jorum Studio

Layer upon layer of luxurious hand-cut details transfigure abandoned glass in the artist’s latest series of glass sculptures titled ‘Wild Flowers’; personifying a story of potential and renewal and becoming beacons for social change.

Scotland-based, Costa Rica-born artist, Juli Bolaños-Durman, presents her latest collaboration with independent Edinburgh-based fragrance brand, Jorum Studio. The project will debut at the exhibition ‘Re.Use, Re.Think, Re.Imagine’ at Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, which opens on 18 October, 2019.

Earlier this year, Juli was invited to respond to Jorum Studio’s latest collection, ‘Progressive Botany Vol. 1’. Prompted by rich olfactory studies, a vivid layering of the textures and the artist’s Latin American heritage, the exploration was dynamic and involved all of the five senses.

The resulting 21 sculptures embody the rich, raw and bountiful nature of wild flowers and our natural environment. They are brought to life by deconstructing discarded glass, reconfiguring the elements through play and embellishing them with decadent layers of hand-cut details.

Bolaños-Durman is known for revitalising waste material by applying various heritage cold-working processes. Her practice is driven by a genuine concern for the amount of rubbish we produce as consumers. As a maker working with a material that can be repaired, this project represents an opportunity to demonstrate both the traditional skills and artistic vision required to breathe new life into these discarded objects. In the end, these objets d'art personify a story of potential.

‘Through my work I want to invite the audience to delve into a magical world of second chances, where waste material is the starting point. I’m interested in how this visceral bond between the maker and the material permeates the creative process, guiding it to become something new. Furthermore, these objects honour the instinctual need to create something with our hands, and how this act of making connects us to our humanity, our forefathers/foremothers and the future’. 

Juli’s unique perspective can be easily linked to the core of her artistic statement: ‘I want to create raw pieces that are put together intuitively through the joyfulness of play, by exploring different materials and ideas to challenge the boundaries of art and its meaning’.