Host IX–Epidendrum (519)

Host IX–Epidendrum by Debora Moore
Stop Number: 
519

Debora Moore (American, b. 1960)
United States, Seattle, Washington
2007
Blown and hot-worked glass, hot-applied glass powders, acid-etched
H: 96.52 cm, W: 30.5 cm, D: 17.8 cm
(2007.4.70)

Glass is an inorganic material, and it is not usually thought of as possessing natural or organic qualities. Yet the fact that it can assume a variety of textures and colors—combined with its unique ability to hold and reflect light—makes it the perfect material with which to explore the natural world.

Host IX–Epidendrum depicts a star orchid that Debora Moore hot-sculpted at the furnace. Orchids of the genus Epidendrum are epiphytic, which means that they grow on other plants. In nature, the pale, delicate flowers—seemingly fragile and luminescent—hang from the dark trunks of the trees on which they thrive. Moore has captured the quality of these ethereal plants by her close observations, and by the fast and often risky way in which she handles the glass.

The 22nd Rakow Commission.