Neon (detail) by Paul Cocksedge. Courtesy National Glass Centre.

24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Journalist, Alastair Smith tells it as he sees it at the National Glass Centre.

To call an exhibition ‘Brilliant’ may at first glance appear to be a bold claim. But in this sense the word is used to denote a quality of brightness as well as to imply greatness.

Brilliant was the first contemporary lighting exhibition to be shown at the V&A Museum in London and now has a temporary home at Sunderland's National Glass Centre until June 5 2005.

This mini-exhibition features six works, which try to reflect the role of glass in contemporary art and demonstrate what can be done with light.

Autumn Light (detail) by Sharon Marston. Courtesy National Glass Centre.

Arik Levy’s ‘Umbilical’ focuses attention on wires, which feed lights and seemingly makes a feature of the crowded plug banks attached to the wall.

Rather than using the light produced by the bulbs this installation uses their chunky, tangled cables to show us what is needed to produce light - power.

Paul Cocksedge does this in a more expressive way with ‘Neon’ a collection of specially formed bulbs that allows the viewer to see the gases, which create a warm and eerie glow.

Other works are slightly reminiscent of Ikea light fittings and might perhaps look more at home in a loft-style apartment than a small gallery space.

The most innovative use of light as visual art is Home Sweet Home by Francesco Draisci who creates a three-dimensional domestic scene using wool yarn and UV light. This succeeds in creating something of an optical illusion and for me is strangely similar to the animation in Tron (1982 Disney Sci-Fi action!).

Set on the banks of the River Wear, the National Glass Centre promotes glass in all its uses, from design and technology to artistic expression. Courtesy National Glass Centre.

On the whole the exhibition didn’t seem to be a particular exploration of the role of glass in contemporary art. Glass wasn’t the feature of the exhibition as a whole, but was rather used to create light in all but two of the installations.

The exhibits aren’t what we traditionally think of as art and, however imaginative they are, it seemed to me to be a little like home furnishing dressed up as something more intellectual.

But for those of a more artistic bent it’s worth checking out Educe, a display of cast and blown glass by the centre’s resident artists, in the foyer of the National Glass Centre until April 29 2005.

The works use glass to cover such varied themes such as climate change, urban living and the balance between masculinity and femininity.

Alastair Smith is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the North East region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.