More than 70 one-of-a-kind sculptural pieces, made by hand in Vancouver, Canada, showcase the multidisciplinary artist and designer’s ongoing research into the reciprocal relationship between glass and copper. To create the vessels, Arbel blew conventional glass forms and then poured in a liquid alloy made mostly of copper. During cooling, the glass form shattered off, leaving a metallic shadow of itself. The technique creates uniquely shaped vessels and an iridescent finish, demonstrating Arbel’s decade-old signature process of letting the intrinsic properties of material suggest its form, rather than the other way around. “When hot, glass and copper interact to make a form that neither would be capable of on its own, in a performance staged by the glass blowers, with great skill, in a short amount of time,” says Arbel. “The object immediately begins to cool, and the two materials, because of their intrinsic nature, are compelled to reject each other. I’m interested in the form that remains—an artifact resulting from or documenting an act of unpredictable contingency and circumstance.”

Photography: Giorgos Sfakianakis