Breakfast Film Wins the Bombay Sapphire Prize 2005

Breakfast Film Wins the Bombay Sapphire Prize 2005

LONDON, September 23/PRNewswire/ --

A trio of UK glass artists from Scotland, London and Bristol have won the Bombay Sapphire Prize 2005, the world's biggest annual award for artists, designers and architects working with glass.

The GBP20,000 international award for excellence and innovation in contemporary glass was presented at a ceremony held this evening in London to Anne Brodie, Ruth Dupré and Louise Gilbert Scott who together created an 8-minute short film of a breakfast being cooked in a glass workshop.

Roker Breakfast was judged the winner by members of the Bombay Sapphire Foundation who include: Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Nicole Farhi, Thomas Heatherwick, Lesley Jackson, Dan Klein and Nadja Swarovski.

The glassmakers say that their film (named after the Roker Hotel in Sunderland where they stayed when making the film at the National Glass Centre) "celebrates the theatricality of glassmaking, which normally takes second place behind the finished object". The short film emphasises the drama and dangers in a hotshop, the extraordinary aspects of glassmaking and the amazing qualities of hot glass. The film shows glass pouring, spreading, elongating, stretching, spilling, cooling, cracking and breaking as well as the more predictable way it behaves when tooled and worked.

Designer and Foundation member, Ron Arad described Roker Breakfast as a "mini masterpiece. These people live glass. They're not scared of glass and they see a beauty that's normally hidden from everyone."

The work of the 24 designers short-listed for the Prize will be showcased in the Bombay Sapphire Blue Room exhibition being previewed at the Truman Brewery in London until Sunday before touring the UK throughout 2005/06 beginning with Manchester from 1 October.

Bombay Sapphire - the premium gin in the striking blue glass bottle - is a keen supporter of design. Now in its fourth year, the Bombay Sapphire Prize has celebrated the work of some of the world's most talented artists and designers. Previous winners include Thomas Heatherwick for his Glass Bridge (2002), lighting designer Paul Cocksedge for NeON (2003) and Richard Box for his inspirational installation Field (2004).

Source: Bombay Sapphire Foundation

For further press information, please contact: Andrew Carney at the Bombay Sapphire Foundation, tel: +44(0)7900-241300, +44(0)20-7224-1020, or email: andrew@oakesbacot.co.uk

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