In my work, I talk about the phenomenon of the moment as a fleeting condition, and about how we crystallize personal moments in the pool of events by experiencing, memorizing, and collecting. The flow of incidents and the uniqueness of every moment, the openness of an endless number of possibilities, is what interests me. I think of this as a fragile system through which we navigate and through which we are navigated, and which could be compared to the amorphous structure of glass. I use glass and other materials, including natural phenomena, in a poetic, metaphoric way to picture our fleeting, vulnerable existence.
Anne Petters is a visual artist with a strong background in glass. She received a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Institute for Ceramics and Glass Art, Hoehr-Grenzhausen, Germany, and an M.F.A. in Sculpture/Glass from Alfred University, New York. Born in Dresden in 1978, Petters grew up in the German Democratic Republic. She understands the political change in her country, which she experienced as a displacement of reality, as a basic influence on her lifestyle and artistic work. Her interest in controlling and displaying moments of our fleeting, vulnerable existence leads her to a poetic, metaphoric use of glass and other materials, including natural phenomena.
Petters has been awarded numerous artist residencies, including a fellowship at Wheaton Arts New Jersey in 2012, a one-year residential stay at the Edinburgh College of Art in 2013 and 2014, the Emerging Artists in Residence at the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, and a Visiting Scholar Residency at Southern Illinois University. In 2014, Petters received the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Scholarship for excellence in British Craft. She has taught as a Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art and is currently teaching at City & Guilds of London Art School and University for the Creative Arts, Farnham.