Details:
The ‘Chihuly Chandelier’ is located at the main entrance rotunda of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Information:
The original name for the work was ‘Ice Blue and Spring Green Chandelier.’ However, the work is technically a hanging sculpture, rather than a chandelier, as it is not a source of light. Instead, natural light and external light sources are used to illuminate the work. The ‘chandelier’ is made out of 1300 pieces of blown glass (blue, green and yellow) attached to a steel armature, made by the American sculptor Dale Chihuly. It was first installed in the museum in 1999 but in a much smaller scale as Chihuly has since enlarged the work (doubled the size in 2001). The work measures twenty-seven feet long and about twelve feet across. The top and bottom of the work is made up of large rounded pieces of blown glass, while the body consist of smaller round pieces. Pieces of spiralling and pointed glass protrude throughout the whole work, like the tentacles of a giant squid. The work changes from a predominantly wide blue top to a narrow green and yellow base with a large sphere, taking on the abstract shape similar to an exclamation point.
Did you known?
There exists a duplicate of the original 1999 version of the chandelier in Scotts Square in Singapore. It is also located at the entrance to the building as it is not a source of light and relies on natural light to illuminate the work.