Construction sites and agricultural areas are typically described by the utilitarian activities that shape them: rugged, rough and often grueling. They are spaces that resist softness, literally built around strength and tension. Artist Pia Hinz turns this idea on its head as she explores the conceptual and material relationship between strength and vulnerability.
Living and working between the Ardèche, Amsterdam and Arles, France, Hinz has been working with stained glass for the past three years. She focuses much of her work on objects that you might encounter in working environments, such as construction or agriculture. Her sculptures take a range of recognizable shapes, including hammers, screws, traffic cones, tractor doors, scythes, rope and more.
By introducing glass, Hinz undermines the practical purpose of tools and machines, as each object emerges opposite to its original form. “Here, vulnerability and invincibility are intertwined,” says an exhibition statement La Menuiserie 2a residency that the artist completed in 2024. “By replacing functional materials with fragile materials, the artist questions our relationship to objects, their use value and their narrative potential.”
As light passes through the artist’s work, it spreads across surrounding spaces, resulting in color shifts. Pieces such as “MON PRÉCIEUX” and “Néon sacré” are elegantly decorated with abstract, geometric patterns formed by winding metal lines. For Hinz, working with the material is, as she describes, an ‘urge to discover the relationship between light and space’.
The artist is currently working on a permanent stained glass monument for a building in Paris. Find more at Instagram.
