The ANU School of Art & Design welcome Min Haeng Kang as the 2025 Christine and Stephen Procter Fellow.  

Recrafting waste glass is at the core of Min Haeng Kang’s research and creative practice. Selected from dozens of proposals from an international callout, Kang’s project stood out for its dedicated use of recycled glass and a search for the opportunities for artistic expression that come from her rigorous approach to material.  

Educated in Toyama Institute for Glass Art in Japan, Min was awarded the Grand Prize at the International Exhibtion of Glass, Kanazawa. She is currently a lecturer in Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Min has started her fellowship by processing about 100 bottles donated locally from Gundog Wines, cutting and reshaping them using traditional and contemporary techniques. For example, she is opening the cylindrical part of the bottle into a flat sheet, using the 19th century method for making windows. Bottoms of the bottles have been melted into rods using an extruder from the workshop’s glass 3D printer, and the tops  have been cut into rings or crushed into various grades of frit and powder. These are the building blocks for her sculptures and wall installations.  

Min says her practice focuses on ‘aspects of glass’ materiality which have not been fully explored because they do not meet the needs of the mainstream’. At ANU she is exploring devitrification in her work, a mistake in glass that most glassmakers want to avoid. A crystallised surface that renders the glass opaque, devitrification is common when melting post-consumer waste glass. She is instead transforming it into the source of pattern within her complex forms inspired by the opposition of reason and emotion.  

Sharing her making approaches in the Glass Workshop, students are learning to cut, fuse and transform recycled wine bottles. For her contribution to the SOAD Seminar Series, Min will give a lecture titled Glass as Living Matter: Devitrification, Waste, and the Ethics of Materials.  

Min’s project aligns with the School of Art and Design’s vision for teaching and research with a focus on sustainable practices. In the Glass Workshop, recent developments include the transition away from gas to melting in an electric furnace part funded by ANU’s Below Zero initiative, and the development of 3D printing from recycled glass.  

For over 20 years the Procter Fellowship have honoured the legacy of Head of Workshop Stephen Procter and his partner Christine Procter by providing international exchange and residencies in glass between Australia and the rest of the world.  

Join Min Haeng Kang for her seminar talk: Glass as Living Matter: Devitrification, Waste, and the Ethics of Materials, 1-2pm, Tuesday 12 August. Register here