On Extreme Fragility (Homage to Blaschka) by Anne and Patrick Poirier is installed and ready to be uncovered at the March 20 opening.
How do you install the world’s largest space devoted to the display of contemporary art and design in glass? Very carefully, very precisely and with a lot of teamwork.
Here are some scenes from the installation work in the galleries this week.
The first is of an installation of a new work, acquired last year by the Museum and on view for the first time. Evening by Cerith Wyn Evans is a double-tiered colorless chandelier. The chandelier is programmed to blink in Morse code, spelling out onto a nearby video monitor the text of the poem, “Evening,” by Hilda Doolittle.
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- Museum staff putting together Evening by Cerith Wyn Evans, a colorless double-tiered glass chandelier.
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- The sculpture is hung, and the lights tested.
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- The chandelier is now covered to protect it from dust as staff continue to work in the gallery.
Czech artist Marian Karel’s Black Cube requires less construction work, but is still carefully handled by a full team of installers who remove the object from its crate and move it onto its display platform. To protect the new floors, installers wear booties over their shoes, or, as you’ll see in the installation shots below, move around in socks!
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- The object is carefully walked from its case to its new platform.
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- Carefully set into place.
All of the installations require precision and close attention to detail. Works that are hung on walls, like Josiah McElheny’s Untitled (White), must be leveled out and measured. Other works, like Jun Kaneko’s Glass Sticks, are built up piece by piece.
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- Marking the perfect level for installing Josiah McElheny’s Untitled (White)
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- Carefully building Jun Kaneko’s Glass Sticks. This sculpture is formed of 104 stacked glass bars, 26 on each side. Each bar consists of up to 10 layers of colorless and red glass.
Next door, in the new Amphitheater Hotshop, a major milestone was passed this week: all equipment has been installed and tested. All of the equipment has been brought up to temperature and back down.
The furnaces were charged for the first time. There are currently 1,350 lbs of glass melting in the furnaces, waiting for the first glassblowing trials.
George Kennard charges the furnaces for the first time.
Just a reminder to save the date for our grand opening weekend, March 20-22, when you’ll be able to see the final installed galleries, see our first glass demonstrations in the new space, and enjoy a free weekend full of activities!