Chihuly Takes On Ice Rink In Tacoma

Glass artist Dale Chihuly's schedule could frighten the most staunch executive secretary. Yet somehow he finds time for the kind of experimental work that keeps him at the top of the art world.

Next week, he and a crew of assistants will run experiments at the Tacoma Dome, freeze neon drawings into ice on the floor. It's preparation for a major neon work Chihuly plans to install there for five days or so, depending on the Dome's schedule and his own, probably in August.

"The idea is to use the whole rink," Chihuly says. "I'm doing a drawing somewhere between 50 and 100 feet high that will use thousands of feet of neon."

The theme is taken from his baroque "Venetian" series. "A vase with some strange stems coming out of it," in his words. Seattle neon artist Roger Ligrano will fabricate the tubing to the shape of the drawing, filling it with gases that will glow yellow, orange, green and magenta.

"I don't want it to look like a neon sign," Chihuly said. "I hope that by bundling a lot of pieces together, I can make something that will read as solid-colored areas."

The big neon "drawing" will be laid flat on the rink, which will then be flooded and frozen over. Chihuly hasn't yet decided whether to engineer the freeze so the ice will be milky, muting the neon, or transparent, to leave it readily visible. "One can also paint the ice, then freeze another layer over that," he mused. The idea is still very much in flux, and will be developed in process.

SAM show last year

This isn't his first foray into ice. Last year, for his show at the Seattle Art Museum, he re-created a piece titled "20,000 Pounds of Ice," which he'd originally done in 1971, with James Carpenter. Blocks of ice frozen around lighted neon tubing were set outdoors, where they melted away over the course of several days in the sweltering August sun.

Charles Parriott, who helped create the ice piece for SAM, is working on the Tacoma Dome project, too. He had inquired to see whether any ice rinks in the area might be interested in having a glass sculpture frozen into their floor for a few days. The Tacoma Dome, which is used as a hockey rink by the Tacoma Rockets, welcomed the idea. They offered it rent-free for a few days when it wasn't tied up with other use.

Chihuly will foot the bill for the neon - somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 feet of it, he estimates. At the end of the project, the neon flower will be intact, ready for another use.

"It could go on the side of a building," Chihuly muses.

He has other commissions under way, too. In the next few months, he plans a major installation for Microsoft, a project for the new Everett Community Theater that will open in August, and a major piece for Corning Glass' world headquarters building in Corning, N.Y. He's also creating a 10-foot-high chandelier for Elton John's Atlanta condominium.

That's in addition to half a dozen other private commissions, two major museum shows of his work that opened last month, and solo gallery exhibitions in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He's also creating work for another gallery show next month in Sun Valley, Idaho.

His heart's in Tacoma

Chihuly travels and shows his art all over the world, but his heart is in his hometown, Tacoma. He bought a building on the west side of Tacoma's Pacific Avenue, near Union Station, for a studio. It may well include a hot shop for glass blowing, which he will operate in conjunction with the University of Puget Sound. Chihuly attended UPS, which awarded him an honorary doctoral degree.

He likes the idea of creating art for his hometown, but isn't yet sure how the public will see it. It's certain to get a warmer reception that Stephen Antonakias' abstract neon sculpture, which inspired hot protest when it was installed in the Dome as part of Tacoma's One-Percent-for-Art program nearly 10 years ago. That piece was so unpopular that the program was voted out of existence there.

Chihuly acknowledges that his planned piece "would be more interesting in connection with an event at the rink. But because it's still experimental and I don't know how it's going to work, I don't want one."

He worries about the art being overpowered by the vast space of the dome. "I'd rather have it outside, in a lake," he said.

But the prospect of doing this piece excites him. "If I pull it off, it could be good for a lot of rinks," he muses. "Maybe even for the Ice Capades!"