October 03, 2024
When I flew up to Seattle in July for the Puget Sound Fling, I spent one morning at Chihuly Garden and Glass, a celebratory display of the glass art and sculpture of Dale Chihuly. A native son of Tacoma, Washington, Chihuly is the most famous glass artist in the glass-making mecca of the Pacific Northwest.
With its whimsical, organic shapes and vivid color that glows in sunlight, Chihuly glass mingles nicely with plants. I’ve seen exhibitions at gardens around the country, including Desert Botanical Garden, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Dallas Arboretum. So I was curious to see Chihuly’s glass-and-garden showcase in downtown Seattle.
Let’s start with the garden, where saturated blue spears, orbs, and curlicues amid the greenery give it an otherworldly look.
Green spiraling “horns” evoke seashells.
A wriggly solar flare of a sculpture is the queen of the garden. Standing on a berm cloaked in black mondo grass, it seems to writhe and pulse with light.
Sometimes the glass reminds me of the long, skinny balloons that children’s entertainers twist into balloon animals. I can almost hear that squeak, squeak.
Seattle had just endured a heat wave in early July, and flowers were a little sparse. But eryngium and geranium were flowering and harmonizing with the blue glass.
Looming over the garden, Seattle’s iconic Space Needle looks like something out of The Jetsons. A bristling tower of chartreuse glass reaches up to meet it.
Elsewhere, red “trumpets” cluster in another tower.
Sinuous glass “cobras” wriggle at the back of a golden garden bed.
Spiraling green horns harmonize with yellow-flowering santolina.
Cobras and horns — or do you see something different?
Lavender spears glow in a woodland garden of ferns and tree stumps.
Hydrangea adds another touch of lavender, draped across a decaying log.
Smouldering wavy spears glow next to reddish trunks of peeling bark.
Freckled lilies add more orange to the scene.
One more
A chunky purple tower is actually made of translucent plastic — the only non-glass piece on display.
Inside an arch-roofed glasshouse, a 100-foot-long work of glass “flowers” hangs from the ceiling, filtering sunlight through yellow and red blossoms.
It’s truly monumental.
Inside the museum
Inside the museum, Chihuly glass is displayed to eye-popping effect in black rooms, like these glass-laden boats on a reflective, water-like surface.
It’s like Santa’s sleigh packed with Christmas balls. Or a galaxy’s worth of alien planets.
Chihuly glass revels in color and energy. It’s a more-is-more aesthetic.
The party boats are here!
In another room, a carnival of colorful spikes and spears is elevated for viewing like a parade float.
Ka-pow!
More cobras
Persian Ceiling
The Persian Ceiling was my favorite room for its rainbowed walls and stained-glass ceiling.
Lit from above, the colorful glass rests on a clear-glass ceiling. The pieces float above you like undulating jellyfish.
Here’s a video of the dizzying effect. Turn your sound on for accompaniment by Austin’s Black Pumas.
Glass cherubs whimsically appear among sea urchins and other pieces evoking sea creatures.
Color streaks down the walls.
Another floating cherub, living out his technicolor dreams
Sealife Room
In the Sealife Room, an hourglass-shaped tower was inspired by creatures living in Puget Sound, including starfish, octopus, conch shells, sea anemones, urchins, and manta rays.
Up close you can search them out amid wriggly, blue glass “water.”
Winter Brilliance
Frozen-esque icicles evoke an icy world in the Winter Brilliance room. As a sign explains, these pieces were “commissioned by Barneys New York in 2015 for its holiday window display on Madison Avenue.”
And while I neglected to take pictures of the gift shop, it was actually quite nice, offering a variety of glass objets plus books, puzzles, scarves, lamps, and more that evoke the lively color and energy of Chihuly glass.
Museum of Pop Culture
Next door to Chihuly Garden and Glass stands this fantastical building, the Museum of Pop Culture. According to its website:
“The architecture of the MOPOP building is inspired by the energy, movement and fluidity of the art it exists to celebrate. A symphony of textures, myriad colors and flowing design elements create a one-of-a-kind visual experience.
Three-thousand panels, made up of 21 thousand individually cut and shaped stainless steel and painted aluminum shingles, blanket the building’s exterior responding to changes in light conditions and appearing to shift when viewed from different angles, reminding audiences that music and culture are forever evolving.
MOPOP’s architect, Frank O. Gehry, used Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application (CATIA) in the creation of the building—the first architect to do so.”
It’s a sight to behold, especially if you’re into architecture.
Up next: The lush rainforest and coastal beauty of Olympic National Park in western Washington. For a look back at my visit to Gillian Mathews’s garden in Seattle, click here.
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Digging Deeper
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All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.