Capacity

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Annie Cattrell
Born Glasgow, 1962

‘Capacity’, 2000/01
Blown lampwork glass

Purchased 2004 from the artist.
Purchased with funds from the Contemporary Art Society’s Scottish Arts Council lottery funded National Collecting Scheme for Scotland.
Museum number 2004-95

Much of Cattrell's practice as a fine artist deals with the human body and mind. This piece is anatomically correct, we can clearly see the blown trachea (windpipe) and the bronchial tree of the pair of lungs. The delicate filigree is made with characteristic ‘lampwork’: thin rods of Pyrex silicate glass were heated, stuck on and teased out using a turret flame lamp.

The work is so fine and fragile that it is almost invisible – like the breath in your lungs.