Laura de Santillana Alessandro Diaz de Santillana
SCAPES
... The Moon was gendered from his mind, and from his eye the Sun had birth; Indra and Agni from his mouth were born, and Vāyu from his breath. Forth from his navel came mid-air the sky was fashioned from his head Earth from his feet, and from his car the regions. Thus they formed the worlds. ... HYMN XC. Puruṣa. ... The powerful Ananta, directed thereto both by Brahman and Narayana, O Brahmana, tore up the mountain with the woods thereon and with the denizens of those woods. And the gods came to the shore of the Ocean with Ananta and addressed the Ocean, saying, ‘O Ocean; we have come to churn thy waters for obtaining nectar.’ And the Ocean replied, ‘Be it so, as I shall not go without a share of it. I am able to bear the prodigious agitation of my waters set up by the mountain.’ The gods then went to the king of tortoises and said to him, ‘O Tortoise-king, thou wilt have to hold the mountain on thy back!’ The Tortoiseking agreed, and Indra contrived to place the mountain on the former’s back.”And the gods and the Asuras made of Mandara a churning staff and Vasuki the cord, and set about churning the deep for amrita. The Asuras held Vasuki by the hood and the gods held him by the tail. And Ananta, who was on the side of the gods, at intervals raised the snake’s hood and suddenly lowered it. And in consequence of the stretch Vasuki received at the hands of the gods and the Asuras, black vapours with flames issued from his mouth. These, turned into clouds charged with lightning, poured showers that refreshed the tired gods. And flowers that also fell on all sides of the celestials from the trees on the whirling Mandara, refreshed them.”Then, O Brahmana, out of the deep came a tremendous roar like unto the roar of the clouds at the Universal Dissolution. Diverse aquatic animals being crushed by the great mountain gave up the ghost in the salt waters. And many denizens of the lower regions and the world of Varuna were killed. Large trees with birds on the whirling Mandara were torn up by the roots and fell into the water. The mutual friction of those trees also produced fires that blazed up frequently. The mountain thus looked like a mass of dark clouds charged with lightning. O Brahmana, the fire spread, and consumed the lions, elephants and other creatures that were on the mountain. Then Indra extinguished that fire by pouring down heavy showers.” ... SECTION XVIII Scapes 3
Venetian artists Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana have joined forces to create Scapes, a dynamic and entirely new body of work. The siblings share an impressive pedigree in glass. They are the grandchildren of Paolo Venini, the founder of Venini, an innovative glassworks in Murano, Italy. Their father, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, was the director of Venini and also designed for the company. In addition to a family legacy in glass, both Laura and Alessandro are respected artists who have enjoyed successful solo careers. Scapes is all the more fascinating because it represents not only their first combined museum exhibition, but also their conjoined interpretations of an aspect of Hindu cosmology. The exhibition comprises four rooms based on the Hindu belief that the universe is divided into separate spheres of existence: Earth, Space, Sun, and Moon and Constellations. The de Santillanas have interpreted elements of the Hindu cosmology in glass, creating spaces in which forms and colors correspond to physical phenomena, or the visible universe, and evoke an atmosphere of cosmic vibration. Each installation is composed of a limited, but strikingly vibrant, color palette. Smoky gray, gold, blue, and deep red define the Earth room, which is the first sphere of existence. Although the Space room is composed almost entirely in shades of white and silver, Space has a golden egg that signifies the origin of the universe. Silver, burnt gold, white, copper, and indigo delineate the Sun installation, while the Moon and Constellations are white, black, and silver. Each room includes a combination of both artists’ work, with Alessandro Diaz de Santillana’s glass paintings installed on the wall and Laura de Santillana’s glass sculptures on the floor. Alessandro Diaz de Santillana’s work is distinctive—his 21 glass paintings were created from large, colorsaturated cylinders that were slumped open into vibrant, painterly compositions. Laura de Santillana’s work is equally striking. Her elegantly sculptured forms, displayed singularly and in small groupings, represent lingams, mountains, celestial eggs, and stars. All of the work for Scapes was produced entirely at the Museum of Glass, where the artists merged time-honored traditions of Italian glass making with the organic fluidity of the American Studio Glass movement. The de Santillanas’ work was produced in the course of two lengthened residencies in February and September of 2010. Scapes 5
6 Scapes
AU 0
Sun Lingam (gold)
10 Scapes
EARTH Scapes 11
12 Scapes
Installation view Scapes 13
Installation view
MERU (white)
MERU (clouds) 16 Scapes
MERU (black) Scapes 17
MERU (two peaks) 18 Scapes
MERU (amber steps) Scapes 19
20 Scapes
Red Earth Scapes 21
Black Earth 22 Scapes
Amber Earth Scapes 23
Delta 1 24 Scapes
Delta 2 Scapes 25
MERU (Blue) 26 Scapes
White Earth Scapes 27
... Forth from his navel came mid-air the sky was fashioned from his head Earth from his feet, and from his car the regions. Thus they formed the worlds. ... HYMN XC. Puruᚣa.
28 Scapes
MERU (blue)
White Earth Scapes 29
30 Scapes
SPACE Scapes 31
Space B (silver) 32 Scapes
Space A (white) Scapes 33
Space A - B 34 Scapes
Space A (white) detail Scapes 35
Space B (silver) detail 36 Scapes
Space A - B Scapes 37
Space 0 38 Scapes
Space 0 HG S1 Scapes 39
HG S1 40 Scapes
HG S4 Scapes 41
HG S4 42 Scapes
HG S7 Scapes 43
HG S6 44 Scapes
HG S5 Scapes 45
46 Scapes
SUN Scapes 47
48 Scapes
Scapes 49
SU 6 50 Scapes
Sun 17 Scapes 51
Black lingam 52 Scapes
SU 3 Scapes 53
Sun 18 Sun 17 Sun 10 54 Scapes
SU 4 Scapes 55
SU 2 56 Scapes
Sun 15, Sun 16 Scapes 57
SU 5 58 Scapes
Sun 13 Scapes 59
60 Scapes
Installation view Scapes 61
62 Scapes
MOON and CONSTELLATIONS Scapes 63
Moon 2, Moon 1 64 Scapes
Installation view Scapes 65
66 Scapes
Moon Scapes 67
CS IN4 68 Scapes
Star 1 (blue)
Star 2 (blue) Scapes 69
70 Scapes
Stars Scapes 71
Stars 72 Scapes
CS IN3 Scapes 73
Laura de Santillana, an internationally recognized artist, creates elegant sculptural forms in glass and other media such as bronze and marble. She was born in Venice, Italy where she spent much of her youth surrounded by glass in Venini, her family’s glassworks company. She joined the firm as a designer, producing iconic pieces such as Numeri (1975) and Quattro Stagioni (1976). Her work first appeared in the United States in 1979 as part of the traveling exhibition New Glass: A Worldwide Survey, organized by the Corning Museum of Glass. Since then, de Santillana has had numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her work is collected internationally and can be found at prestigious institutions such as the Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Corning Museum of Glass, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Victoria and Albert, London.
74 Scapes
Alessandro Diaz de Santillana honors his family’s tradition while establishing his own successful career as an artist. He grew up in Venice and joined the family glassworks company, Venini, in 1981. In the early nineties, he began exhibiting his own work internationally in solo and group shows. From 1997 to 1999, de Santillana was a professor of sculpture at the University of California at San Diego. Following this appointment, de Santillana returned to Venice, where he continues to live and work. Alessandro’s work was included in the Venetian pavilion in the 2009 Biennale di Venezia is represented in private and public collections in Singapore, UK, France, and Italy. In recent years, he has completed commissioned artworks all over the world. Alessandro works in a variety of media besides glass, such as photography and painting.
Scapes 75
LAURA DE SANTILLANA Sun Lingam (gold) Blown and mirrored glass, gold leaf on burnt wooden base 44 x 33 in. (111.8 x 83.8 cm) EARTH ROOM MERU (black) Blown glass 23 1/2 x 12 3/4 in. (59.7 x 32.4 cm) MERU (amber steps) Blown glass 30 1/2 x 11 in. (77.5 x 27.9 cm) MERU (white) Blown glass 25 x 14 3/4 in. (63.5 x 37.5 cm) MERU (two peaks) Blown glass 22 3/8 x 16 1/4 in. (56.8 x 41.3 cm) MERU (clouds) Blown glass 25 x 14 1/2 in. (63.5 x 36.8 cm) MERU (blue) Blown glass 20 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (52.1 x 49.5 cm)
SPACE ROOM Space 0 Blown glass, gold gild 8 x 4 in. (20.3 x 10.2 cm) 76 Scapes
Space A (white) Blown glass, steel and plexiglas structure 95 x 32 x 30 in. (241,5 x 81,3 x76,2 cm)
Space B (silver) Blown glass, steel and plexiglas structure 95 x 32 x 30 in. (241,5 x 81,3 x 76,2 cm) SUN Sun Lingam (black) Blown and mirrored glass, gold leaf on burnt wooden base 39 x 33 in. (99 x 83.8 cm) Sun 9 Blown glass Base- blown glass; copper gild 23 ½ x 25 in. (59.7 x 63.5 cm) Sun 10 (infinite gold) Blown glass, gold leaf Base-blown and mirrored glass 24 1/4 x 25 in (61.6 x 63.5 cm) Sun 12 (white) Blown and mirrored glass Base- blown glass; copper gild 23 ½ x 25 in. (59.7 x 63.5 cm)
Sun 13 gold Blown glass, gold gild 18 3/4 x 9 1/4 in. (47.6 x 23.5 cm) Sun 14 Blown glass with iridescence Base blown glass; copper gild 23 ½ x 25 in. (59.7 x 63.5 cm) Sun 15 white powder Blown glass mirrored 16 3/4 x 9 in. (42.5 x 22.9 cm) Sun 16 Blown glass 17 3/4 x 9 in. (45.1 x 22.9 cm) Sun 17 Blown glass with iridescence Base- Blown and mirrored glass 24 1/2 x 25 in. (62.2 x 63.5 cm) Sun 18 Blown glass Base- Blown and mirrored glass 23 3/4 x 25 in. (60.3 x 63.5 cm)
Star (white green) Blown glass, gold leaf 4 3/4 x 17 in. (12.1 x 43.2 cm) Star (white) Blown glass 4 1/2 x 17 1/4 in. (11.4 x 43.8 cm) Star (grey white square) Blown glass, gold leaf 5 x 16 1/2 in. (12.7 x 41.9 cm) Star (grey blue square) Blown glass, gold leaf 6 x 13 1/2 in. (15.2 x 34.3 cm) Moon 1 Blown glass with iridescence 5 x 13 1/2 in. (12.7 x 34.3 cm) Moon 2 Blown glass with iridescence 7 x 13 1/2 in. (17.8 x 34.3 cm)
MOON AND CONSTELLATIONS Star 1( blue) Blown glass, silver, copper, and gold leaf 4 x 18 1/2 in. (10.2 x 47 cm) Star 2 (blue) Blown glass, silver and gold leaf 3 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. (9.5 x 49.5 cm)
Dimensions are as follows: height x width x depth. Photo credits: All photos by the artists p. 68 Isabelle Armand p. 69 Fabio Zonta All objects by Laura de Santillana. All objects are courtesy of the artist. All objects were produced by the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, in 2010 - 2012. Scapes 77
ALESSANDRO DIAZ DE SANTILLANA AU 0 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, gold gild, framed 22 ¼ x 31 ¾ x1 ¾ in (56,5 x 80.6 x 4,5 cm)
Delta 2 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, silver gild 20 1/4 x 28 3/8 x 1 7/8 in. (76.8 x 72.1 x 4.8 cm)
EARTH
SPACE
Black Earth Blown and slumped glass on plywood, silver gild 18 11/16 x 39 in. (47.5 x 99 cm)
HG S1 Blown, slumped, and mirrored glass 23 x 28 1/2 x 1 3/8 in. (58.4 x 72.4 x 3.5 cm)
Amber Earth Blown and slumped glass on plywood, gold gild 19 11/16 x 43 5/16 in. (50 x 110 cm) Red Earth Blown and slumped glass on plywood, gold gild 16 3/4 x 43 5/16 x 1 1/2 in. (42.5 x 110 x 3.8 cm) White Earth Blown and slumped glass on plywood, mecca gild 22 11/16 x 35 5/16 x 1 1/4 in. (57.7 x 89.7 x 3.2 cm) Delta1 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, mecca gild 18 7/8 x 33 1/16 x 1 11/16 in. (48 x 84 x 4.3 cm)
78 Scapes
HG S2 Blown, slumped, and mirrored glass 22 x 26 1/4 x 1 3/8 in. (55.9 x 66.7x 3.5 cm) HG S4 Blown, slumped, and mirrored glass 23 1/8 x 27 7/16 x 1 1/8 in. (58.7 x 69.7 x 2.9 cm) HG S5 Blown, slumped, and mirrored glass 22 1/4 x 27 1/2 x 1 3/8 in. (56.5 x 69.9 x 3.5 cm) HG S6 Blown, slumped, and mirrored glass 24 1/4 x 27 5/8 x 1 3/8 in. (61.6 x 70.2 x 3.5 cm) HG S7 Blown, slumped, and mirrored glass 19 3/4 x 25 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (50.2 x 65.4 x 3.8 cm)
SUN SU 2 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, gold gild 21 3/8 x 29 1/4 x 2 in. (54.3 x 74.3 x 5.1 cm)
CS IN4 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, black lacquer 16 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 1 1/4 in. (41.6 x 69.9 x 3.2 cm)
SU 3 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, gold gild 20 x 29 1/2 in. (50.8 x 74.9 cm)
Moon Blown and slumped glass on plywood, silver gild 18 7/8 x 31 x 1 3/8 in. (47.9 x 78.7 x 3.5 cm)
SU 4 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, gold gild 21 3/4 x 28 1/2 x 2 in. (55.2 x 72.4 x 5.1 cm) SU 5 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, copper gild 19 1/2 x 26 3/8 x 2 3/8 in. (49.5 x 67 x 6 cm) SU 6 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, silver gild 20 3/4 x 29 1/4 x 2 in. (52.7 x 74.3 x 5.1 cm)
MOON AND CONSTELLATIONS CS IN3 Blown and slumped glass on plywood, black lacquer 19 3/4 x 29 3/4 x 1 3/8 in. (50.2 x 75.6 x 3.5 cm)
Dimensions are as follows: height x width x depth. Photo credits: All photos by the artists p. 68 Isabelle Armand p. 69 Fabio Zonta All objects by Alessandro Diaz de Santillana. All objects are courtesy of the artist. All objects were produced by the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, in 2010 - 2012. Scapes 79
Thank you to the MoG Staff & Board, Ben Cobb and the hot shop team and Charlie Parriott, Jay Mc Donnell, the cold shop team, Richard Boerth, Karsten Oaks, Doug Tillotson, Byron Hensley, Jim Flanagan and his team, Josef Zuvac, and Connie Parriott for their invaluable help in the making of this exhibit. All our gratitude for the beautiful essays to Dr Doshi, David Landau and Francesco Da Rin De Lorenzo.
04/2012 graphic AD3 snc
April 7, 2012 - January, 2013 Tacoma, Washington, USA