Considerations: An Installation by Sarah Vaughn

Dec 6

Written By BRAHM

February 15 - August 10, 2025 | Atwell Gallery

Sarah Vaughn’s Considerations invites visitors to step into a landscape of thousands of carefully crafted glass river rocks. Made using techniques like blowing, flame-working, casting, and laminating, these fragile stones are stacked and arranged to create an immersive installation that explores how we experience and remember the world around us. Each glass rock represents a moment in time—some tied to personal memories, others shaped from reclaimed glass, blending stories of loss and creation.

Rocks are ordinary objects, but they often carry extraordinary meaning. Many of us have picked up, collected, and treasured a favorite rock, drawn to its weight, texture, or beauty. Vaughn’s glass rocks amplify these familiar associations while asking us to reflect on their delicate, untouchable surfaces. Like rocks in a riverbed, changing and smoothing over time, memories tumble through our minds over years and decades. They can become smoother, but they can also sharpen, grow indelible, or fade until they disappear entirely.

This installation is envisioned as the first of many, evolving to respond to the architecture of each new space it inhabits. By blending the personal and the collective, Vaughn invites us to reflect on how simple objects can stir deep, lasting memories. She sees these glass rocks as symbols of resilience—fragile yet enduring—which capture the layers of individual and shared memory that shape who we are. Through her work, she transforms something seemingly simple into a profound meditation on time, connection, and the stories we carry.

On display with Vaughn’s rocks will be a short documentary produced by Loam. This documentary will showcase Vaughn in her studio as a way to connect viewers better with her artistic approach, techniques, and vision.

Starting on April 28th Vaughn will be in residency at the Museum. She will be in the Atwell Gallery until May 3rd adding more rocks to the exhibit and rearranging them. At the end of her residency she invites everyone to come to a community day on May 3rd and share in the creation of her exhibit.