Rebecca Bradley

Like many others, my life until now has led to me having an unhealthy obsession with sparkle. This project is the manifesto of it.

Girl culture is a diverse experience almost all girls can relate to in some way. It is the exhibitionist nature of modern femininity which is often reflected back to society through consumer culture. It is a value associated with a measure of the female ‘self’ through materials seamlessly tied to points within a girl's life. Understanding the importance of particular categories of materiality in relation to the female identity allows us to question the current and transform the future. 

The digital atmosphere that surrounds us threatens the definition and perception of reality. In an era of technological innovation that has seen the creation of flawless, synthetic diamonds, undetectable by man or machine, our ‘reality’ is changing. Fragments of time captured through process form inclusions within reflective transparencies, but are lost through our modern society which strives for the collection of purity.

Glass is an amorphous solid. Transfixed in a seemingly eternal fluidity and often formed into ‘fake’ sparkle, it hovers between the realm of the real and the synthesised. My work with glass is very much driven by the energy in the material and the potential of glass to express life and engage with light. Material properties are determined through variables of time, heat and materiality within a chosen process, which form unique fragmented identities within each piece. Experimentation with various recipes for cast glass then lead to a fixation on the fragments of time left behind within the material, known as an 'inclusion'. Embracing discovery and accidents is what I like about working with glass. The relationship between process, manufacture and collection is crucial to understand and manipulate categorisation as a measure of purity and worth to create exclusivity within the act of mass production.

Physical exploration is then selectively brought into the digital and examined through photography, video, and rendering, to investigate the points at which the natural and artificial worlds that create ‘girl culture’ meet and geology and gemmology collide to form space. This submerged reality is then taken into the plan to create the obscure and enrich the contradiction of the visual and the complexities of personal emotion attached to the aesthetic of materiality.  

The architecture, whilst appearing natural in form is in essence digitally conceived through 3D scanning, CNC, casting and moulding fabrication techniques, allowing the viewer to question the nature of what we experience in our everyday physical and digital realities. The space utilises a disused courtyard between prestigious jewellery shops and auction houses along Old Bond Street, London. It acts as an embassy for girl culture, a space for engagement with the development of female identity whilst aiming to inspire and predict future trends. The value of female friendship and collaboration is the very purpose of the space: bringing women together to develop and grow new collectives.