March 4, 2009

Chihuly: the Nature of Glass

glass agave towers

Situated among actual agave plants near the entrance of the Desert Botanical Garden, these glass agave plants are used in making tequila bottles.

This is an ongoing installation through the end of May at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. They are currently featuring a number of Dale Chihuly pieces weaved in among the extensive desert flora. Chihuly is a widely recognized glass artist, although I think now he only does the conceptual work and employs an army of assistants for the actual fabrication and installation of his pieces. I'm not an art critic or even aficionado, but I did enjoy looking at the works while strolling through the cold desert evening.

Posted by Dennis on March 4, 2009 5:57 PM |

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Comments:

  1. You're missing an opening quote in this href:

    This installation looks pretty cool. I was talking w/ someone the other day about the validity of big-name artists who farm out the actual art-making to peons... I think Damien Hirst does this. She thought it was more legitimate in Chihuly's case.

    Comment by silverback gorilla[LiveJournal user info] at 06:07 (Central), March 5, 2009

  2. Thanks for pointing out my HTML error, I didn't even check the page after posting. With regards to the art process, I'm just not qualified to comment. I do know that one of the main reasons Chihuly doesn't do the actual glasswork anymore is because he lost an eye (I think to hot molten glass) and without depth perception, glassblowing is basically impossible. I saw a documentary about him and the installation he did in Venice, Italy a few years back. It seemed to me that it was a symbiotic relationship; a lot of artists essentially apprentice through his shop and then strike out on their own later.

    Comment by Dennis[TypeKey Profile Page] at 10:50 (Central), March 5, 2009

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