October Issue 1999
Dale Chihuly - Showman & Maestro
by Jane Grau
Like Liberace, Le Cirque de Soleil, Harry Houdini, and P.T. Barnum, Dale Chihuly puts on a good show.
When interviewed about his installation in Charlotte's Mint Museum of Craft & Design last summer, the innovative glassmaker did not demure when compared to history's great entertainers.
Like Liberace, he thinks the world could use a little dressing up. You'll see his gaudy baubles in places as disparate as Caribbean casinos, Seattle bridges, and Venetian canals.
"In some ways, the whole world is a place for me to do something in," says the peripatetic artist.
If something like the incongruity of ice in the desert, for instance, sparks his imagination, he'll set about making it real in the most public way possible. It's a constant give-and-take of creative impulses, as if Chihuly is a machine through which a multitude of sensory stimuli are received, processed, and returned to the world transformed.
"Most people would say glassblowing is their favorite part, but for me, it's the glass itself, when it's finished, that I can then work with," he says.
A prime example is his new Jerusalem 2000 series, which consists of swirled-glass cylinders to which translucent cubes are affixed. They're an uneasy juxtaposition of solidity and weightlessness, a balancing act where everything, no matter how heavy or opaque, seems to float or swim. They force you to see light, gravity, and water in whole new ways.
By using the world as his canvas, Dale Chihuly redefines what art is. By involving so many people, at so many levels, in the creative process, he redefines what an artist is.
For instance, the huge dimensions of his production line in
his foundry near Seattle call for a physicality that, like the
Cirque de Soleil, borders on the balletic. Pilchuk Studios is
a three-ring circus of stokers, gaffers, blowers and such, all
intent on turning an inert lump of molten glass into an iridescent
bubble of light and color.
Many people think the emphasis on teamwork is a result of an automobile
accident where he lost an eye and his depth perception.
"Yes, the accident was a deciding factor in his art," says Jerald Melberg, who's represented Chihuly in this area for five years, "but at the level and size he was creating, if he'd had four eyes and four arms, he still couldn't have done it alone. It takes a whole team to execute a single piece -- someone to hold the rod, someone to blow, another to shield workers' hands from the heat, another to hand them the tools, and so on."
So yes, when you look at a piece of Chihuly art glass, you're mostly looking at the result of his idea and other people's exertions.
"But he has the vision," says Melberg. Which is to say that no matter how many other hands are involved in making the art, the final product is essentially a crystalization of Chihuly's instincts.
Dare we say that the molten sensibilities of hundreds of students and apprentices have been fired in the Pilchuk crucible? As an educator, he's enabled them to acquire skills, gain confidence, and crystallize their own visions under his tutelage. Most of the prominent glass artists of today learned from Chihuly.
Taking the circus on the road involves package designers, engineers, electricians, truck drivers, travel agents, and other logistical experts. The fragile pieces of one of his famous chandeliers, installed in Jerusalem's Citadel, were attached to an enormous armature by a team of rock climbers.
Videographers, journalists, and art historians document every step. Art institutions all over the world scramble to present shows. In Seattle, city leaders are engaged in commemorating their Most Valuable Citizen with his own bridge.
The people who attend Chihuly installations and lectures, revel at Chihuly sculptures in hotel lobbies, get intimate with Chihuly sea forms in small galleries, take Chihuly books and videos back to their homes and classrooms, and wear Chihuly Over Venice t-shirts in cafés and grocery stores, are his minions, carrying his message -- "Come see what can be done!" -- throughout the land.
And finally, there are avid collectors who commit to the experience that promises them endless excitement and pleasure owning a Chihuly.
"I don't know why you'd want to write a book if no one would read it," the artist says by way of explaining his delight in "making things that make people feel good."
Where Houdini kept his magic tricks secret, Chihuly eagerly shares his with the world. Although he's credited with pulling glassblowing out of the category of craft and into that of sculpture, primarily through scale, what may earn this artist a place in history is his ability to educate and inspire.
So if, like P.T. Barnum, he's a master of marketing, willing to give the public whatever it wants in the way of surprise, magic, spectacle, and, of course, beauty, then Chihuly's Elixer is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Jane Grau is a freelance writer living in Charlotte, NC. She has been a visual arts reviewer for "The Charlotte Observer", "Creative Loafing", and "The Arts Journal".
Editor's Note: The exhibit, Dale Chihuly: Installations, will be on view at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Uptown Charlotte, NC, through Jan. 9, 2000. For further information call the museum at 704/337-2000. The Jerald Melberg Gallery in both Charlotte and Charleston, SC, carry works by Chihuly on a regular basis.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC
29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.