Subterranean Sculpture | Ben Young

Subterranean Sculpture

Self taught and raised in New Zealand, Ben Young has been creating glass sculpture for 10 years. Influenced by the natural scenes of New Zealand it is not hard to imagine the influence nature has had on the artist. Capturing subterranean scenes of natural formations that have been created through the ebb and flow of thousands of years of movement between bodies of water and the solid earth. These natural forms are realized in concrete and glass.

Handcrafted and cut 2D plains of glass, with no technological influence, are layered into the 3D sculpture. Ben Young says this about his work,“I work with 2D shapes and have to figure out how to translate that into a 3D finished product. Sometimes my start point changes dramatically as shapes can be limited – I can’t create any internal right angles – so I have to find a way to layer the glass to create certain shapes,”. This layering creates a glass form that conforms to the concrete base seamlessly. The finished product seems to be cut right from the earth itself like as if an architectural section.

Deriving much of his work from nautical scenes such as a surf eating away at a beach or developing landmass through an eroding ocean floor. His subterranean series of sculptures are derived from underground aquifers that create cavernous voids in the earth. Ultimately telling a story of past, present, and future. The void being the past location of earth and water carved away. The present is the current state of the form, or the concrete, slowly withering from constant movement. Then the future being the downward direction of the glass form driving further and further down. Altogether showing the natural ebb and flow of erosion captured in a sculpture showing a beautiful scene that is normally unseen.

By: Joshua Mohn