Fragment 1 is the first in a series of stained-glass works in which fragmentation—both material and conceptual—forms the central theme. This mouth-blown glass panel, size: 16 × 20 cm (2024) hovers between two metal frames, held in place by a minimalist stand that detaches it from architectural constraints. The physical composition reflects the themes of disorientation and uncertainty: the glass seems to exist in an in-between space, a transient moment in an unbroken process of repositioning.
The title Fragment alludes to the fractured nature of identity and place within an increasingly fluid world order—one in which borders, structures, and certainties are in perpetual flux due to globalization, technological acceleration, and shifting social paradigms.
The work draws inspiration from Don DeLillo’s play Valparaiso, in which a man, Michael Majeski, accidentally arrives in the wrong city and subsequently undergoes a series of media-driven events that further fracture his identity. His unintended destination becomes an existential drift—a dislocation where the notion of a stable, geographic identity dissolves, replaced by a fragmented self.
In Fragment 1, this sense of uprootedness and reconstruction is made tangible through the material itself. The mouth-blown glass, with its subtle irregularities, trapped air bubbles, and delicate fissures, is not a sterile conduit for light but a surface that embodies the very experience of fragmentation. Its transparency and texture manipulate the way light moves through the space, continuously shifting the boundary between inside and outside. Light is not merely filtered but refracted and reordered—an apt metaphor for how identity, in a globalised world, no longer manifests as a fixed state but must be continually redefined.
Just as Majeski must recalibrate his sense of self within the contemporary condition, Fragment 1 exists in a state of perpetual transformation. The shadows and coloured refractions it casts shift throughout the day, responding to the passage of time, the surrounding environment, and the gaze of the observer. The stained glass does not merely exist within its frame; it projects an evolving reality onto the space around it.
With Fragment 1, a series begins—one in which the question of place and identity is continually revisited. Each new fragment will further explore what it means to exist in a world where orientation is no longer a given. How many fragments will follow remains uncertain—just like the search for a place within an ever-changing landscape.
