{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1260577"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1260577/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HJ2790/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HJ2790/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014HJ2790","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HJ2789","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HJ2791","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HJ2792","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HJ2793","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1260577/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1260577","accessionNumber":"C.105-2012","objectType":"Sculpture","titles":[{"title":"Cinema","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"El Ultimo Grito is the highly acclaimed partnership formed by the London- based Spanish designers Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo. Their work takes a witty and questioning approach to the relationship between humans and the objects that  surround them. As designers, they typically seek solutions that break from tradition, producing objects that provoke thought or communicate ideas about society and culture. They frequently utilise relatively modest materials, employing these in very  direct ways. Their designs have been represented in the Furniture collections of the V&amp;A since 2001, and the Museum of Childhood since 2010.\r\n\r\nCinema , is part of a recent series of unique works in glass, made in Murano, Italy, in a factory specialising in the production of laboratory glassware. Titled Imaginary Architectures , these works exist somewhere between abstract sculptures and architectural models, representing as they do imagined architectural forms made up  of inter-connected spaces. Some of the works in the series represent the more generic architecture of houses, hotels or, as here, cinemas, while others take their cue from specific buildings, including Berlin's station and airport. Although highly abstracted, the works nevertheless strongly evoke the use and functionality of the  spaces represented, and provide a clear sense of their physical and social dynamics, for example, through the inclusion of access points, transit spaces, areas for mass congregation and for more intimate gatherings. \r\n\r\nThe basic form of Cinema  - a horizontally-oriented blown glass  cone on narrow legs - evokes the  futuristic character of 1950s design, and at first glance appears like a piece of esoteric technical equipment. Closer inspection however reveals its  architectural character and its  embodiment of the fundamental  elements of a cinema comprising entrance, stairway and auditorium, the latter being an appropriately dark space through the use of coloured rather than clear glass. The particular delight of the piece is that it additionally functions as a camera obscura, the image gathered through the narrow open mouth of the cone being readable on its colourless solid  base. As such it both makes reference to, and practically functions as, a site for projected images.\r\n\r\nThe Imaginary Architectures series is representative of a wide cross- disciplinary relationship in contemporary architecture, craft and design, which has seen on one hand architects draw inspiration from the forms and technologies of small-scale  objects, and on the other, the evocation of architectural forms within craft and design. Imaginary Architectures is also significant in representing the increasing breadth and complexity of El Ultimo Grito's practice. It forms part of a resurgence of interest in glass blowing in Britain, while also demonstrating the conceptual depth and unfettered imagination that can be brought to the discipline by designers working  outside the established conventions of studio glass making.","physicalDescription":"Glass sculptural form, consisting of a cone in black glass on narrow legs, with a miniature glass staircase. The sculpture echoes the areas found in a cinema. The wide end of the cone is fitted with a lens, and the sculpture also functions as a camera obscura. ","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"El Ultimo Grito","id":"A5702"},"association":{"text":"designers","id":"AAT25190"},"note":"El Ultimo Grito are designers Roberto Feo and Rosario Hurtado."},{"name":{"text":"Massimo Lunardon & C.","id":"AUTH335618"},"association":{"text":"workshop","id":"x28708"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"glass","id":"AAT10797"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Blown glass","categories":[{"text":"Glass","id":"THES48946"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2014HJ2790","2014HJ2789","2014HJ2791","2014HJ2792","2014HJ2793"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES395802"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"AAT47090"}],[{"text":"Camera obscura","id":"AAT22487"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"<unauthorised>","id":"x28652"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"San Giorgio di Perlena (VI)\r\nnear Vicenza, Italy"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2011","earliest":"2011-01-01","latest":"2011-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"37","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"48","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Originally shown in the exhibition El Ultimo Grito: Escape into the Upper Air, at Spring Projects, London, 9 September to 18 October 2011","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'Cinema', from the series 'Imaginary Architectures', blown glass, designed by El Ultimo Grito and made for them at the Massimo Lunardon workshop, San Giorgio di Perlena, Italy, 2011","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"New Glass Review 36 Corning Museum of Glass, p.125."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"El Ultimo Grito: Escape into The Upper Air, (Shopwork) 2011, no page numbers, but in the chapter 'Imaginary Architectures' there are several photographs of Cinema, some of them taken in the Lunardon workshop."}],"production":"Unique work, made in San Giorgio di Perlena for El Ultimo Grito.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"El Ultimo Grito\r\nCinema, from the series Imaginary Architectures\r\n2011\r\nThe unique glass pieces by design studio El Ultimo Grito exist somewhere between abstract sculptures and architectural models. Here the abstracted form is inspired by the cinema. It also functions as a real camera obscura, capturing an inverted image of distant objects in its lens-like screen.\r\nItaly (Murano)\r\nBlown and lamp-worked\r\nMuseum no. C.105-2012","date":{"text":"1/4/2015","earliest":"2015-04-01","latest":"2015-04-01"}}],"partNumbers":["C.105-2012"],"accessionNumberNum":"105","accessionNumberPrefix":"C","accessionYear":2012,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2013-01-31","availableToBook":true}}