The Technician

Many engineers have little to do with art, since it seems that art has little to do with them. Art appears to be a collection of paints, assembled into abstract patterns that have little or no relation to our world of scientific formulas and mathematics. However, I believe that the work of Dale Chihuly takes these views and turns them on their head.

Certainly the glass sculptures on display include many abstract shapes. There are globes, tubes, and some shapes that, for lack of a better term, can only be described as weird. But Chihuly and his team of excellent glass-blowers take these abstract shapes and give them meaning. Tubes become logs, strange planes become sea life, and even the globes have metals melded into the glass to create swirls of color that will leave you wondering “how did they do that?”

How did they do that indeed. The seaform exhibit shows some of Chihuly's original design sketches, but even these only hint at the elaborate process that is used to make each sculpture. To get the full story, you have to go down the hall to the movie theater, where a video details the entire team at work.  You get to sit in comfort and watch as Chihuly's team spins, flips, twirls, bends, rolls, and pulls molten glass into shapes you would have never thought could be made.

The process they use to make each sculpture is fascinating. First, they need to heat up the glass to where it's almost completely liquefied. After that, they can do what they like, as long as they keep spinning the piece (if they hold it still for too long, it will sag into an unwanted shape). If desired, they roll the piece over metal foil to create colored splotches on the surface of the glass. In the case of the logs, they put the entire piece into a mold made of actual tree bark. And all of this must be done as quickly as possible, since if they take too long, the glass will break due to uneven cooling.

All in all, I found the Chihuly glass exhibit at FIA to be an extremely interesting and enjoyable experience. You can go through the exhibit and marvel at the shapes, then go watch the show to see how they're made. When you're done with the show, you can always go back and marvel at the shapes again, only this time you're thinking about the work done to make the piece.

Dale Chihuly: Seaforms will be on display at the Flint Institute of Arts until September 8.  The Flint Institute of Arts is located at 1120 E. Kearsley Street.

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