Intimacy22 #1 – Aria Kiani

Sculpted glass vessel, 34 cm.

Intimacy22 explores our social functions through distancing laws during 2022, practices such as masking, social bubbles and disinfection alter the ways we interact with our surroundings and each other. Our collective connection with glass vessels is a thread that relates to the audience, bringing familiarity and creating a safe space to interact with the ideas presented.

This sculptural vessel acted as a form of social practice that became activated in live crowds. Documenting interactions of people kissing with glass vessels between them for a year showed our social structures had changed as we were slowly released to navigate something new.

Aria: “I began making the intimacy vessels in late 2021 but did not know what to do with them beyond them being an object. Around new year’s I began playing around with them offering them to people to kiss and from there the vessels found their agency. From that point on my position became as a documentarian for the journey the vessels went on. Ultimately it has been the interaction with the vessels during social distancing laws that completed this piece.”

Intimacy22 is a prize-winning piece in the 2024 British Glass Biennale and has been featured in the 43rd issue of “The New Glass Review” publication by the Corning Museum of Glass.