Shrugs Greet Chihuly Art In Venice -- Venetians Seem In No Danger Of Being Swept Off Their Feet By Northwest Artist's Outdoor Exhibit Of Glass Chandeliers

VENICE, Italy - Dale Chihuly may be the most famous glass artist since Louis Tiffany, but that doesn't mean that here in Venice, a city that knows glass like Seattle knows salmon, Chihuly's is a household name.

In the month that Chihuly and his crew have been here arranging a dozen of his huge "chandeliers" around the city like giant glass bouquets, plenty of people still aren't sure what the chandeliers are all about or who's behind them.

Roberto Morelli passes two of Chihuly's outdoor sculptures daily on his way to work as a waiter in Venice's bustling, tourist-oriented Plaza San Marco.

"I guess they are art, yes?" said Morelli. "They look maybe like big grapes to me. At first, I didn't know they are glass. Then some Americans in the cafe had a card with pictures of these grapes. So then I know it is art. The artist is American, I think. I don't know him."

Since he first dreamed up this project more than two years ago, Chihuly has been calling it "Chihuly Over Venice," a title suggesting a state of siege. But Chihuly and his project managers say the point was never to remake this extravagantly decorative city into a Chihuly showroom.

"This city is so complicated visually that you're not going to overwhelm it with a few sculptures," said Parks Anderson, Chihuly's chief installation manager. "This is just a kiss, a gesture really. That was all this was ever meant to be."

Indeed, Venetians, who can walk into any neighborhood church and see every inch of wall and ceiling adorned by some of the world's greatest painters, seem in no danger of being swept off their feet by Chihuly's glass.

An orange chandelier installed next to the city's busy open-air fish market attracted little attention on an afternoon earlier this week. As Maria Bianchi sold eel and sole from her stall, she hardly glanced at the orange glass mass perched on a giant steel frame 20 feet away.

"Someone said it is art," said Bianchi. "I don't mind. I think the tourists like to photograph it."

By midweek, five chandeliers had been installed along the Grand Canal, the city's main thoroughfare. With dramatic lighting installed by Chihuly's crew, the pieces looked like huge pieces of shimmering candy.

Though passers-by seem to generally approve of the sculptures, which mostly perch on giant steel tripods in some of the city's less busy squares and courtyards, the Venetians aren't standing around gawking. They leave that to Chihuly's American fans.

By late yesterday afternoon, as one of Chihuly's final sculptures was being installed over a small canal near the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, one of the city's famous art museums, 75 or so Northwesterners had gathered.

Businessman Sam Stroum had his video camera aimed at the action. Jeff Smith, star of public television's "The Frugal Gourmet," watched, along with his son and a group of friends. Burnie Clark, president of KCTS-TV, was there along with a five-man KCTS crew, which has been filming Chihuly for a year in preparation for a national PBS film.

Other Northwest glass art collectors, a couple of gallery owners, and Chihuly's own film crew (he's also making a documentary), crowded onto the walkway beside the canal.

Not coincidentally, the city's first international glass art show opened yesterday, and it includes six other Northwest artists. Organized by Dan Klein, a London-based glass art expert and independent curator, Klein and a Venetian art dealer approached the city a year ago with the idea of organizing a show of top international contemporary glass.

Chihuly originally had planned to hang his chandeliers here next spring. But Klein and Chihuly wanted to coordinate the international show, "Venezia Aperto Vetro," with the grand finale of "Chihuly Over Venice." Two major glass events mean more publicity for both.

One of Chihuly's most impressive chandeliers was installed as part of the "Aperto," and it's the only one to be indoors. It is about 8 feet tall, is made of clear glass, and looks like a large sea creature with graceful tendrils. Chihuly set it on the floor directly beneath a reproduction of a famous 18th century Venetian chandelier. It's the kind of juxtaposition that some Venetians might consider cheeky.

But Gianfranco Mossetto, the city's minister of culture and the official who approved both "Chihuly Over Venice" and the "Aperto," says he considers both projects a success.

"Dale's work is great," said Mossetto. "People tell me they like it. I like it. I think Dale and the `Aperto' are what we need to help reinvigorate glass here in some respect."

Chihuly hasn't yet floated his "walla wallas," down a canal (they're glass sculptures shaped like giant onions), but he was talking about installing one more chandelier today.

He says he hasn't yet decided how long to leave the sculptures up but expects they will start coming down in the next week.

And though he seems to have accomplished his two-year project to make chandeliers at sites around the world and temporarily install them in Venice, Chihuly said he hasn't had time to reflect on how it's all going.

"When you're having a dinner party and you're cooking the food, it's not a question of how the food tastes at the moment," said Chihuly. "You're just trying to get it all done. That's how I feel."