The Golden Prissma
NVB Prissma has asked Ellen Urselmann
to design a work for De Gouden Prissma,
so as to make the annual prize for the
Information Professional of the Year an
inspirational asset to the workplace of
the winner.
Ellen Urselmann [1978] studied at
amongst others the Gerrit Rietveld
Academy and earlier this year her
work received the prestigious German
‘Coburger Glas Preis’. Her work is
present in [inter]national museum
collections, such as the National
Glassmuseum in Leerdam [NL] and
Museum Alter Hof in Coesfeld-Lette [DE].
In her hand-blown glass sculptures she
is known to combine glass with textile,
ceramics and wood to create and show
anonymous memories. Unknown souvenirs
are encased by colourless glass,
the glass thereby receiving a conservative
function. In her work Urselmann documents
data for the future, a theme relating to
De Gouden Prissma.
De Gouden Prissma is made out of a
hand-blown glass sculpture and a handmade,
oak wooden box. The sculpture has a hollow
part, filled with some loose letters and closed
by a stopper, and a solid part with engraved
words.
When the object is looked at from different
angles, the text appears as if out of nowhere.
It is signed EU 2006.
In De Gouden Prissma Ellen Urselmann
envisions the work of the information
specialist by combining the concepts
of searching and finding in one and the
same object.
The empty part represents the question,
the formulating of a search and the
beginning of a quest. The stopper
symbolises the carefully keeping
together of all information. The narrow
part in the object connects the letters to
form words at appearing in the solid part
of the object. The thickness of the glass
also has a magnifying function: any
documents placed under the Gouden
Prissma will be magnified by it.
The literal search for words on this
glass sculpture is crucial in finding
all meanings of De Gouden Prissma.
Karmijn Kunstadvies was responsible
for the mediation concerning
De Gouden Prissma.
