Glass Crusade: Chihuly Invades Jerusalem With Glass, Grandeur And That Patented Flair For Publicity

JERUSALEM - Dale Chihuly and his entourage blew in and out of town here recently, leaving behind an installation that has Jerusalemites gawking.

Chihuly's stunning and controversial new display, "Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000," opened in July at the Tower of David Museum. The exhibit has created Chihulyland among the stones of the ancient citadel, which sits just inside the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City.

According to museum director Shosh Yaniv, Canaanites of the Near East "invented" glass 4,000 years ago, making beads to resemble prized marble stone. Two thousand years later, in the same eastern Mediterranean region, Phoenicians began the art of glass-blowing.

But Israel has never seen anything like the works Chihuly and his Seattle-based team put together for Jerusalem's celebration of the year 2000.

In true Chihuly tradition, publicity for the event has been huge. For weeks, Israelis have been puzzling over the strange Chihuly name written in Hebrew letters on hundreds of banners posted on roads leading into Jerusalem and on all its main thoroughfares. Full-page ads have appeared in every major Israeli daily newspaper, as well as in the programs of other Jerusalem arts events. All this to make sure people here accept the takeover of one of Jerusalem's most popular and historic museums by the flamboyant work of a Pacific Northwest icon.

The Tower of David project is the largest exhibition of Chihuly's work ever mounted. It includes a pyramid of shimmering pink crystal on a metal frame reaching 30 feet into the sky; a 48-foot tower made up of 2,000 cobalt blue and white conch-like glass swirls, paralleling the Tower of Phasael, one of Jerusalem's most recognizable symbols, and a huge globe sitting on the highest point in the citadel, created from 500 pieces of flat glass to resemble the moon.

The huge pieces tower over small glass spheres barely visible on the floors of the remnants of 12th-century apartments; a garden of red and yellow glass spears that poke out of the ground face a smattering of blue orbs blown in Hebron, and a massive silver chandelier hangs perilously over the edge of a Byzantine-era wall.

At the Jerusalem opening, a gala event attended by more than 1,500 of the country's glitterati, the multilingual crowd wandered among the ramparts of "the castle," as Chihuly calls the fortress which has seen Crusader, Mameluke, Ottoman and British rule. They gazed at the large pieces created at Chihuly's Seattle Boathouse studio, and took in the smaller installations, such as the white Beluga and the Niijima floats fabricated abroad for earlier exhibitions.

Jerusalem resident Margot Pins had fallen in love with Chihuly's work during a visit to Seattle a few years ago. "This contrast of modern glass technique and ancient setting is mind-boggling," she said. "The contribution to Jerusalem is beyond description," she enthused as she looked up at an assemblage of multi-colored glass forming a ceiling entryway into a Crusader hall.

"It's just gorgeous. I've seen pictures of his work, but this is beyond my dreams," agreed Moscow native Ellen Markovich.

Former longtime Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, a Chihuly devotee, loved it, too, expressing his hope that at least some of the work would remain permanently in Jerusalem.

But there were those like museum docent Ruthie Cohn who were offended not so much by the art, but by the fact that the opening, with its lavish buffet, took place on a Jewish fast day, commemorating the breach of the Temple walls which led to its final destruction.

Longtime Jerusalem resident Judith Nusbaum objected to the yearlong Chihuly takeover of the citadel. "This kind of thing just doesn't belong here. It completely diverts attention from the museum."

But there's no question that the show has created a buzz on the streets of Jerusalem. A conversation overheard between two thirtysomething women chatting in Hebrew at an outdoor cafe went like this: "So, have you seen the Chihuly yet?"

"No - couldn't get close to the place - the lines were huge."

"Well, make sure you get back there - it's like nothing you've ever seen. . . ."

By and large, the local press has been positive - Jerusalem Post columnist Barbara Sofer called Chihuly's effort, ". . . one of the most sensational art exhibits ever to come to Jerusalem. . . ." while the Post's arts editor termed the show "his magnum opus." But some journalists here hit on a Chihuly sore spot when they questioned the fact that Chihuly does not create the glass sculptures himself, relying instead on his staff to blow the pieces.

"I get that a little in my hometown," Chihuly told Jerusalem Report arts editor David B. Green. "I think the author of that . . . writes for the Seattle Weekly."

Why Jerusalem?

A short visit in 1997 to attend the memorial service of his friend Izzika Gaon, design curator at the Israel Museum, brought Dale Chihuly to Israel for the second time in his life. During his student years, Chihuly had spent time on a kibbutz in the Negev in 1962. Now he returned as a world-renowned glass artist to follow up on a suggestion Gaon had made before his untimely passing, that Chihuly consider a project in Jerusalem. A stop at the Tower of David Museum convinced Chihuly that the site was perfect for one of his larger-than-life creations.

"This is one of the world's most historic, beautiful and exotic cities," Chihuly told the opening night crowd. "The colored glass will remind people who come here - Arabs, Jews, Palestinians - to think of other things besides war. The crystals are going to help them forget about their differences," he wrote on his sketches for the project.

The logistics of the exhibit were daunting. The museum, along with a few private, prestigious Israeli foundations, raised the funds for shipping, accommodations for Chihuly's staff and the metalwork needed to support the art. Chihuly says he also spent "a large chunk" of his own money to see the project come to fruition. More than 10,000 pieces of glass, weighing 47 tons, were sent by sea from Seattle to Israel in 12 40-foot containers with almost no breakage, according to Seattle architect Ryan Smith, a member of Team Chihuly who spent more than three weeks in Israel supervising the construction of the framework for the installation.

"We had some difficulty dealing with 3,000-year-old walls," Smith notes. "Some of Dale's original ideas to festoon the inside and outside walls of the citadel with glass flowers just wouldn't work," he said.

And a good thing, too, according to Ibrahim Khader, a Jerusalem city sanitation worker who empties the trash cans outside the citadel. "Ancient and modern just don't go together," he said, pointing to the long line of cars attempting to wend their way through the narrow, antiquated alleys inside Jerusalem's Old City walls.

Former Seattle resident Judy Lash Balint writes from Jerusalem.

--------------- Seeing the show ---------------

"Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000" will be on view at the Tower of David Museum until July 2000. Seattle residents may have two opportunities to view elements of the show. Chihuly's marketing team is planning a special trip for Pacific Northwest residents to join the artist for a visit to Jerusalem in early October. There's also talk of some of the large pieces making their way back to Seattle when the exhibit here closes next summer. For updates, check out the Chihuly Web site at: www.chihuly.com/jerusalem