Sylvie Vandenhoucke
Sylvie Vandenhoucke holds a first degree from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp (Belgium) and a Master in Art and a Master in Philosophy, both from the Royal College of Art, London. Since 1991 she has run her own artist studio and has exhibited extensively in Europe and in Japan, Canada and USA. She received several awards including Talente Prize (Germany, 1997), Henry van de Velde Prize for Young Talent (Belgium, 2002), Artist / Researcher in Residence at the Corning Museum of Glass (USA, 2003).
Currently she is Senior Lecturer and Subject Leader for Kiln Glass at the University of Sunderland. In 2007 she was awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant and a Research Fellowship, University of Sunderland for researches in her specialism, Pâte de Verre.
In recent years, she has also taught at various Universities in the UK and in Belgium, Canada, Israel and France.
Vandenhoucke has continued to maintain a high international exhibition profile since teaching at the University, with recent solo shows at the Bullseye Gallery (Portland, USA) and at the National Glass Centre UK.
Research projects
- 'Glass, towards an Inner Space: on introducing metal oxides in Pâte de Verre making'. Research thesis and new body of work, Master in Philosophy, Royal College of Art, London, 2003.
- 'Eye and Mind transformed: investigation in the physical and visual properties of the decomposition of metal oxides in Pâte de Verre making'. Small Grant in the Creative and Performing Arts, Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK, 2006/2007.
- 'Kiln Glass and Pâte de Verre', Research Fellowship, University of Sunderland, 2006/2007.
Research interest
As artist and researcher, Vandenhoucke works with a diversity of materials (metals, fibre glass, paper, carpet...) Her work builds on and around a core of intense research in Pâte de Verre. She manipulates the material into a transmutable medium, turning perception and interaction between viewer and the environment into an acute visual awareness.
Vandenhoucke researches new directions in pâte de verre making, technically as well as visually. Her investigations are always imbedded in this ancient technique but are dealing with contemporary practice, methods and materials in order to push the boundaries of the known and the possible.
