Tag Archives: contemporary glass

Taking down The Glass Wall, Part 2

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With team work and good planning the de-installation of Brian Clarke’s The Glass Wall went off without a hitch!

Removing the glass panes one by one

In three days our team of three preparators, one collections and exhibitions manager, two conservators, and two outside contractors removed all 245 panes of glass, and all of the hanging hardware and steel support structures. Most of the work was carried out by our outstanding preparators who had to climb on ladders and scaffolding to reach and release all of the glass components.

Each large section of the window is made up of 35 smaller sections held in place with hardware and various set-screws. To dismantle, one person supports the adjacent glass panes, and the other loosens the set-screws. Once released, each panel is then handed down to another person and placed into specially constructed slotted crates. What makes it particularly difficult, is all of this is done some 30+ feet above the floor level!

Stephen hands off a glass pane

Most of the panes were in excellent condition, although they were extremely dirty. There were about a dozen panes with loose cames which will need to be reattached. One pane had an old break in it. It had been repaired previously, but needed a little clean up in the lab.

The glass panes are packed for safe transportation

One thing we hadn’t thought about in our extensive planning was that the panes would be slightly loose in the slotted crates. We realized it quickly and improvised with small squares of volara (closed-cell polyethylene foam) and acid-free board tucked around the panes to prevent them from rattling while they were moved. We also found that some of the panes were slightly wider than others. Luckily the difference was not a big enough to be a problem.

Now that the panes are safely in our offsite storage facility, the next step is to clean them and repair the loose caming.

See more photos of taking down The Glass Wall: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjy8cdZ4

by Warren Bunn, Collections and Exhibitions Manager and Astrid van Giffen, Assistant Conservator

Taking down The Glass Wall

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Brian Clarke's The Glass Wall

A new year brings new challenges. One of our challenges this year is to deinstall the very large Brian Clarke window, The Glass Wall. It is currently located just inside the Museum’s western façade along the ramp to the upper entrance of the magic of glass theatre. It is made up of seven large panels each with 35 individual panes with metal supports suspended from steel cables with specially made hardware. The window is 6.3 m (20 ½ ft) tall and 22.4 m (73 ½ ft) long and hangs at the second story level. This is going to be a BIG project!

Brian Clarke's The Glass Wall with the GlassMarket Cafe below.

This spring we are renovating the GlassMarket Café, which sits in the space directly below the window. While the renovations occur (the Café reopens in April) the location is unsafe for the window. Deinstalling the window will also allow us to clean it and repair the loose cames (the aluminum strips around each glass pane) found on some of the panes.  The size and location of the window make any kind of treatment in situ almost impossible. The window badly needs to be cleaned since neither it nor the interior of the building’s windows have been cleaned since it was installed in 2000.

A loose came on the bottom of a pane.

As you can imagine, deinstalling such a huge object is not a process that is undertaken lightly. Dismantling the window requires a lot of planning and preparation. Over the last few months we’ve been having meetings with everyone involved to do just that. This includes the Museum’s conservators, preparators, registrars, and operations managers, as well as an outside contractor who will provide scaffolding and remove the hardware for hanging the window.

The Glass Wall. At the top of the ramp there is about a 2 foot gap between the window and the ramp.

We also had to think about how to store the 245 panes of glass while the window is off display. We had special crates made with slots for the panes which will make transporting and housing the glass safe and compact. The window will be dismantled and taken to our warehouse where we will set up a special area to clean the glass and do any necessary repairs.

Specially made crates with slots to hold individual panes.

The Glass Wall. At the bottom of the ramp there is only a very small gap between the window and the ramp.

After the scaffolding has been put up, the window will be carefully removed, pane by pane, by our preparators. Any loose cames they come across will be temporarily secured with tape. Once all the glass has been safely packed and taken away, the support system can be taken down by our operations team and the outside contractors.

The whole process starts this week!

Favorite Things: Window Bkd #6

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This week’s object is a favorite of Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass

Window Bkd #6, Larry Bell, United States, Taos, NM, 1993 (94.4.146).

One of my favorite works in the contemporary collection is a 1992 wall piece by Larry Bell, titled Window Bkd #6, that was acquired by the Museum in 1994.

In the 1960s, Bell broke new ground in contemporary sculpture with his illusionistic glass boxes and large-scale glass sculptures.  Living and working in southern California, he was one of a group of avant-garde artists exploring Minimalism and light and space in sculpture.  His works were executed in plate glass that was made highly reflective with thin coatings of vaporized metal.

During the American Studio Glass movement’s first decade, few American artists attempted to work with glass in large scale.  While Harvey Littleton, Dale Chihuly, Marvin Lipofsky and other American studio glass pioneers were learning how to blow glass and to treat it sculpturally, other artists, such as Bell, Christopher Wilmarth, and Lucas Samaras, were manipulating commercial plate glass and mirror.  To studio glass artists, the work of these sculptors was important for the way in which the material was approached.

In Window Bkd #6, vaporized metals create a reflective surface that manipulates light and space. Light shifts and refracts among the particles on the vacuum-coated surface, causing the colors to iridesce from gold or silver to blue or violet.  The glass is surrounded by a thick frame of black denim, which absorbs light.  For Bell, the behavior of reflected and absorbed light is the subject of this work, as is the ability of the reflective layers of glass to create space.

Therman Statom at 2300 Degrees

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Artist Therman Statom demonstrated at February 2300 Degrees, the Museum’s popular free evening event (which takes place on the third Thursday of each month from November through March). Here he talks about his demonstration, about his work in general, and about working with the Museum’s young, emerging glass artists.

An outstanding mixed media artists and one of the early artists working in American Studio Glass, Statom has work represented in the Museum’s collection. He generally creates large-scale sculptural installations; one of these installations graces the local Corning Incorporated headquarters.

Video by Jordan Miller.

Reinstallation of Evening Dress with Shawl

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The Museum’s Favorites! exhibit was recently deinstalled to make way for the upcoming Medieval Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants exhibition.  

One of the most popular pieces in the exhibit, Evening Dress with Shawl by Karen LaMonte, was recently reinstalled in the Museum’s Crossroads Gallery where it will remain on display.

The dress is cast in 5 sections, each weighing about 200 pounds. This video shows how a team of four – the Museum’s Conservator, Registrar and two installation team members – worked together to carefully transfer and place each section on a plain white base. According to the Registrar, ” There is a silicone layer on each piece (the artist applied) which makes it impossible to slide the pieces, so you have to line them up and then place them CAREFULLY. You have to be extremely careful when putting the next piece on, as a wrong move will result in a bad chip/break, or serious injury.”

With this piece, lighting is everything.  Bunn says “This piece in particular either sings or suffers depending upon lighting. The installation team has a great understanding of how light and glass work, and handle the initial lighting of  all of our objects.”  The Museum’s Crossroads is full of natural light that gives the admirer the ability to look around the piece as the light shines through it. If you look carefully, you can see the imprint of hands holding the shawl.