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The manifestation of light as colour ‘If art is the transmission of feelings the artist has experienced, then Dale Chihuly has a riotous, colourful and inspired life’. BY RICHARD WEBB
It’s a beautiful sunny June afternoon in London, and I am in search of a bit of colour and culture. There is so much to distract me in this city, but I head to the Halcyon Gallery – that champion of world-class painters and sculptors. The gallery in New Bond Street is at the centre of the fine art world, and plays a key role in London’s creative and cultural landscape, so the Chihuly exhibition was a natural fit. Chihuly was born in 1941 in Tacoma, south of Seattle, and lived in a tough working-class neighbourhood. It was through sheer entrepreneurial endeavour and a
considerable artistic skill that he steadily overcame setbacks that would have stunted the progress of many. An earlier car accident resulted in the loss of sight from one eye, and a subsequent bodysurfing mishap dislocated his shoulder, so he now directs the complicated process of his art, rather than blowing the glass himself. The heat from the furnace is immense. The lumps of molten glass (attractively known as a ‘gob’) on the end of the blowpipes can weigh more than 20kg, so it’s more than one person alone can handle.
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‘Glass is the most magical of all materials. It transmits light in a special way.’ Chihuly works with a team of up to twelve craftsmen who help him get the breathtaking results for which he is universally admired for. His large installations sell for tens of millions of rands, – depending on their complexity and how many were made. “When I was studying interior architecture and playing around with glass, there was one night when I put a pipe into the glass I had melted and blew a bubble. From that moment, I wanted to be a glassblower,” he said. His team spent seven days installing a magnificent 1,500
piece chandelier in Harrods, and also putting together the exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery. “I’m an artist,” he says, “a designer, a craftsman, interior designer, half architect. There’s no one name that fits me well.” If I don’t have to consider the meaning of art too much, and I don’t really have to figure out what it’s trying to convey, then I consider that to be accessible art. Chihuly’s work works for me, and it makes me want to be rich so I can buy a few pieces simply to reflect on the riot of colour.
ART 93