Holly SANFORD

Edmiston Screen 1989
Stained glass
50 sqm
Aotea Centre
Gifted by the Edmiston Trust

No longer in situ

The idea of the screen came from the Aotea Centre project architects. The boldly coloured glass screen originally acted as a dividing wall between Albert's Restaurant and the foyer.

Holly Sanford's design evolved with several considerations in mind. She was aware that she had to consider the importance of the wall's impact upon entering the foyer both at night and in the day. She wanted to create a reflection of New Zealand and celebrate the cultural activities of the city with billowing banners, hints of weaving, theatrical allusions and reflective illusions alongside dark midnight skies and gold starry nights.

The site required special imported hand blown glass, coloured and reflective, which could be appreciated with little direct natural light and which changed day and night with the movement of people in front and behind it.

The folding of the framework around the space interrupted the view of the screen and so it was important that the design unfolded and reacted to each change in angle that was presented.

A team of three fabricated the screen over eight months.

HOLLY SANFORD was born in Connecticut, USA. She has a BFA in lithography and emigrated from the USA in the 1970s. As she was a newcomer so was her chosen medium, stained glass. Although there was traditional stained glass in buildings from the turn of the nineteenth century and into the early to mid 1900s, a new approach for modern architecture was lacking.

Initially she worked on residential commissions. After attending workshops run by American designer Ed Carpenter and German glass artists Johannes Schreiter and Jochem Poensgen in the 80s she began to develop designs for commercial projects, and soon undertook commissions for large-scale public buildings. Her first public commission in New Zealand were for the Whangarei civic centre (Forum North) and soon after, Auckland University, Hamilton City Council, Auckland District Court and the Aotea Centre in Auckland. Commissions also included churches and corporate headquarters.

For four years during this time and until leaving New Zealand for Asia, she also taught glass design at the, then, Carrington Polytechnic Craft Design School in Auckland (now known as Unitec).

From 1991 to 1997 Sanford lived in Malaysia and Vietnam painting, designing textiles and teaching English. Due to a total lack of a stained glass tradition in Asia, glass was not an option.
Now back in New Zealand, Sanford still continues to explore this versatile medium.