ANTIGRAVITY RESIDENCY WITH KELSEY ISSEL + MERYL PATAKY

Rockwell Museum + Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
March 2026
Hot Shop Residency + Site-specific Installation

Resident Artists: Kelsey Issel, Meryl Pataky

Antigravity Residency

In March 2026, She Bends co-founders Kelsey Issel and Meryl Pataky will participate in the Antigravity Residency, a collaborative project between the Rockwell Museum and the Corning Museum of Glass.

Now in its eighth year, Antigravity invites artists to create an original, site-specific installation for the Rockwell Museum’s historic rotunda—an architectural centerpiece that greets visitors as they enter the building. The project seeks to upend expectations by presenting contemporary work in an unexpected location, offering a playful and thought-provoking introduction to the museum.

Issel and Pataky’s installation, True Gravity, will fill the rotunda with a suspended field of neon tubes arranged as a layered, net-like canopy of light. Drawing inspiration from open-weave textile structures, the sculpture emphasizes flexibility, interdependence, and material responsiveness rather than rigid control or perfect symmetry.

The project coincides with several major milestones in 2026, including the Rockwell Museum’s 50th anniversary, the 75th anniversary of the Corning Museum of Glass, and the national America 250 celebration. As part of this moment, True Gravity will be included in Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, a nationwide initiative led by Craft in America honoring the traditions and cultural significance of handmade work across the United States.

Alongside the installation, Issel and Pataky will undertake a residency at the Amphitheater Hot Shop at the Corning Museum of Glass, collaborating with the museum’s hot glass team to experiment with new techniques and approaches to glassmaking that inform their neon practice.

Hot Shop Residency Public Demonstrations

March 24, 26, and 27, 2026
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Amphitheater Hot Shop, Corning Museum of Glass

True Gravity

8mm hand bent clear soda-lime glass tubes filled with Krypton gas, electronic transformers

True Gravity is a neon sculpture of suspended tubes arranged in a layered, net-like canopy. The piece draws from the visual and structural language of open-weave textiles—forms that derive their strength from interdependence and flexibility rather than rigidity and perfection. Inspired by Michael Murphy’s idea of “true gravity” from Golf in the Kingdom—a condition in which the body yields to what the material and environment already intend.

The installation was made by Kelsey Issel under the collaborative mentorship of Meryl Pataky. Their shared practice explores how craft skills pass between bodies and minds– exploring how a feminist pedagogy, that values attunement over control, can expand the possibilities of neon itself. Kelsey and Meryl are co-founders of She Bends, an organization and teaching studio dedicated to the practice and study of neon craft and contemporary art.

From the Studio: