The walls of four lobbies in the Butterfly office complex in Prague’s Karlín district are covered with glass bubbles arranged in a seemingly random pattern. Out of this abstract cluster gradually emerge the faces of four figures who shaped this neighborhood’s unique spirit.
These “glass paintings” depict the faces of the Austrian Empress consort Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, the inventor František Křižík, the legendary industrialist Emil Kolben, and the actress Olga Scheinpflugová. The Empress gave Karlín its name, Olga Scheinpflugová drew inspiration from the streets of this neighborhood while writing her famous novel, Kolben built an industrial compound on the site of today’s Forum Karlín, and the so-called “Czech Edison,” Křižík, ran his thriving enterprise just a few blocks away.
The installations were created based on a computer-generated blueprint, then carefully fine-tuned so the human brain could truly perceive the cluster of bubbles as a portrait – a principle similar to the children’s game of connecting dots, where only the completed connection reveals the final image. Each portrait required over three thousand glass bubbles.
The initial impulse came from the image of chemical molecules that surround us everywhere. Velčovský uses the element of glass bubbles in other installations as well, such as Diver at South Korea’s Lotte World Tower, or the three-part sculpture Good Spirits at Prague’s Quadrio shopping center.