The Burnt Asphalt Family

Pittsburgh Glass Center performance "Food Lab"

2011-08-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Pittsburgh Glass Center- July 23rd event

2011-07-09T12:17:00.001-07:00

Some sneak preview images for our upcoming performance to celebrate PGC's 10th anniversary on July 23rd. Hope you can join us.

All images are from open studio night at Wheaton Arts, NJ.

"TV Dinner" Urban Glass, 2009

2010-08-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

"TV Dinner" Corning NY

2010-07-08T05:21:00.000-07:00

This performance was presented during the Glass Art Society Conference in 2009 at The Studio in Corning NY.

Family Members- Erica Rosenfeld, Jessica Jane Julius, Sara Gilbert, Maret Sarapu, Sam Geer, Skitch Manion, Emma Salamon, Dena Pengas, Deborah Czersko, Leo Tecosky, Adam Holtzinger, Hope Rovelto, Kathy McHoes, Josh Eigo, Walter Zimmerman, Laura Donefer

Extended Family Members- Eddie Bernard, Brian Kibler, Lynn Reed, Amanda Briede, Lindsay Elyse, Abby Freeman, Jessica Amarnek, Kieran Kuschke, Alex Lozier, Erik Fryer, Amy Ritter, Emily Mcbride

Saturday morning 10:00am The Burnt Asphalt Family began to put on their 6^th event, “TV Dinner”. The Corning studio was transformed to resemble a 1950’s decorated living room, consisting of a leather recliner that was turned into a glassblowing bench, old TVs, vintage couch cushions, hanging lamp shades, and more. Once Eddie Bernard gave the introduction, the music started and the show began. About 20 people entered the floor dressed in 1950’s attire. Erica Rosenfeld, Jessica Jane Julius, Maret Sarapu, and Sara Gilbert, the original summer 07 Wheaton fellows, each came out and lit a lamp shade on fire, it had begun. Through the months of planning, building, and practice the next hour and 20 minutes was an accumulation of organizing 20 people to cook a TV dinner meal using glass and glass equipment while also creating performative, inventive, or symbolic ways of using glass. Using 4 benches, 2 furnaces, a ladle station, prep table, and servers, The Burnt Asphalt Family cooked and served popcorn, deviled eggs, breakfast sausage, mixed vegetable with herb flavored butter, buttermilk fried chicken, steak, and apple cobbler. Mixed between each dish were performative acts such a Kool-Aid explosion, a glass Saran wrapped tray of food, and ending with a flaming tower of televisions that were playing TV footage from the 50’s.

*We would like to extend special thanks to Eddie Bernard, Harry Seaman, and Brian Kibler for helping make this performance possible.

"Garden BBQ" Urban Glass

2010-07-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Cocktail Party- Urban Glass

2010-06-20T08:02:00.001-07:00

"Cocktail Party" was performed as a fund raiser for Urban Glass. Even though it was not a full performance we were able to add our flare to the event.

Pumpkin Tower

2010-06-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Tower performed for "Holiday Special" at The University of Louisville, KY

“Holiday Special” was a collaboration between The Burnt Asphalt Family and the glass students at The University of Louisville, KY in 2008. Erica Rosenfeld and Jessica Jane Julius went to visit as Visiting Artist and Artist in Residence and collaborated to create a performance for the public. We showed the public how to make food fast for the holidays. It included baked apples with melted chocolate and whipped cream, a shrimp boil, fried chicken, popcorn, and shrimp wrapped bacon. Special thanks goes to Che Rhodes- Head of the Glass Department, to the wonderful energetic students, and the Sutherland Artists-in-Residence program.

Garden BBQ Slideshow

2009-05-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

Turkey Dinner Slide Show

2009-05-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

Cocktail Party

2009-03-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Artist Collective Burnt Asphalt Family and Brooke Benaroya host a hot glass cocktail soirée, an incendiary intersection of the culinary and glass arts.

@ UrbanGlass - Entrance on 57 Rockwell Place Brooklyn NY
6:30 - 8:30 pm April 2nd 2009

Garden BBQ At Urban Glass Part 1- The Burnt Asphalt Family

2009-03-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

Part 2 Garden BBQ At Urban Glass Part 2- The Burnt Asphalt Family

2009-03-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Urban Glass- Turkey Dinner Video, 12/2007

2009-03-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

"Turkey Dinner" at Urban Glass in Brooklyn NY, 12/2007

Where it all began

2009-03-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

“The Burnt Asphalt Family” began as a collaboration at Wheaton Arts-The Creative Glass Center of America between a group of all woman fellows, Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld, Maret Sarapu, Sara Gilbert and two other artists Sam Geer, and Skitch Manion. Art making normally has a strong sense of individualism but in glassblowing you normally rely on at least one partner if not more. Collaborating gives us access to greater resources of materials, experience, knowledge, and skill. CGCA created an environment that was conducive to collaborating through supporting the discovery of our new vision with the resources and opportunity to focus on its development. The first performance was “Turkey Dinner”, performed at Wheaton Arts, summer 2007.

The Creative Glass Center of America (CGCA) was founded in 1983 by a group of artists, educators and gallery directors who became sensitive to the particular needs and financial burdens facing glass artists. For the past 25 years, 280 CGCA Fellowships have been awarded to artists from around the world, allowing them the opportunity to focus on the development of their artwork. Today, the CGCA Fellowship Program remains the only one of its kind in the U.S. providing emerging and mid-career artists unrestricted access to the facilities and materials necessary for blown, cast and kiln formed glass.

The CGCA Fellowship Program at WheatonArts is a professional level program providing focused and self-directed artists working in glass with a concentrated period of time to work alongside their peers. Fellows work toward a common goal of advancing their careers through the perfection or refinement of techniques needed to develop a new or expanded body of work. The CGCA program is an environment where we provide the facilities, equipment and a technical orientation; however we do not have technical assistance on hand.

CGCA is housed at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in Millville, NJ, an East Coast center dedicated to the continuum of glassmaking in America. The Center is located in an area rich in glassmaking history and is within driving distance to New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

Statement

2009-03-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Statement: The Burnt Asphalt Family

By nature and necessity, traditional glassblowing is a fairly egoless endeavor. It is a collaborative process in which the creators identities are subsumed by the communal sweat and effort required to make a single object. Our concern is not in creating objects or destroying them but in demonstrating various properties and capabilities of glass through teamwork. We do not disregard traditional glassblowing but use it’s techniques to create forms to cook food, for example the hot glass dome that was placed over the turkey in “Turkey Dinner” aided in containing heat around the turkey in order to cook it. We use glass to function as cooking elements, referencing the ritual of eating a meal. However the creation of the work happens in a moment of interaction with our audience.
Our inspiration comes from American Society in the 1950s, which was much stricter and very structured. Society Rules were important not to be broken, there were no shades of gray, everything was black and white. Men did the lawn, took out the trash, fixed things, drove the car on family outings, and supported the family and women stayed at home to cook, clean, and take care of the family. In advertisements, TV shows and movies, the housewife is pictured perfectly well groomed as she is vacuuming, dusting, and cooking. The Betty Crocker cookbook and anything BBQ’D was the trend of the food in the 50’s, were the family meal times were an important part of bringing everyone together. It was an era of trying to keep up appearances of the perfect family. In response to that family ideal, we create the appearance of a well-orchestrated performance that investigates gender roles, family characters, and glass making while using the hot shop as our stage. Our goal is to create something temporary and ephemeral in nature that exist only by being recorded, similar to a moment in everyday life. The props and décor of the space add to the theatrical nature of the performance, which expands on the already exciting and mesmerizing nature of glass. Our audience are people both familiar and non-familiar with the medium and through the ritual of cooking, serving, and eating are brought together. This performance is a merge between a glass demo, a play, and an actual family dinner, meal, or event shared with the audience.
“The Burnt Asphalt Family” began as a collaboration at The Creative Glass Center of America between a group of all woman fellows, Jessica Jane Julius, Erica Rosenfeld, Maret Sarapu, Sara Gilbert and two other artists Sam Geer, and Skitch Manion. Art making normally has a strong sense of individualism but in glassblowing you normally rely on at least one partner if not more. Collaborating gives us access to greater resources of materials, experience, knowledge, and skill. CGCA created an environment that was conducive to collaborating through supporting the discovery of our new vision with the resources and opportunity to focus on its development. The first performance was “Turkey Dinner”, performed at Wheaton Arts, summer 2007. After Wheaton, the performances served to reunite us and to bring new people into our family. It has been a way for us to stay connected and creative in ways outside of our normal lives as artists while still sharing a love of glass. The second performance was an evolved “Turkey Dinner” which was performed at Urban Glass in Brooklyn NY in November of 2007. Some family members such as Maret, who resides in Estonia, were not able to participate while new members joined our family, such as Emma Salamon, Dena Pengas, Deborah Czersko, Adam Holtzinger, and Leo Tecosky. The third performance was the “Garden BBQ” at Urban in May 2008. This time members again were added while others could not participate. It is an evolving group of artists all interested in exploring new ways of working with glass. We are now planning for the next performance in 2009 at GAS conference in Corning NY, “TV Dinner.”