Armoured Head

1990

40 x 40 x 40 cm

Zinc blown glass, expanded metal, aluminium cylinder.

Tate Collection.

The change from solid optical glass prisms to hot blown glass marked a shift in Lijn’s work from the purely metaphorical to the intensely personal. Whereas Lijn’s Prism Heads transformed light, her Torn Heads expressed emotion.

The Torn Heads series was an expression of pain and suffering, and the rupture of the head was a liberating act for Lijn. Instead of the solid geometric prism, a seeing transforming manmade tool, the head became a container of breath.

The opening Lijn made into the closed complete shape was both orifice and wound. The complete change in the head in both form and meaning enabled Lijn to make the Brides.