Embassy of the United States

The New Chancery of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow

The New Chancery Collection

Dale Chihuly

Macchia Forest
2000
13 blown glass elements on pedestals; each element approx. 34 x 34 x 18 in.

In 1981 I started working on the Macchia. In the beginning they were mostly concerned with color -- usually very bright, often strange, mostly opaque color -- where the outside of the piece was dramatically contrasted to the inside. Lip wraps complemented the inside color. Most people don't realize it, but blowing a piece that combines a range of colors is extremely difficult, because each color attracts and holds the heat differently. As we slowly began to figure out these technical complexities, the Macchias began to increase in size. It turns out that size is extremely important to the Macchias, and with them I felt for the first time that a piece of glass held its own in a room.

Source: Dale Chihuly, "On the Road," Chihuly: Color, Glass, Form (Kodansha, 1986)

Thomasin Grim Far 1998 Rayon, dye-weaving; 82 x 49 in. My weavings are made by hand on an eight-harness floor loom using rayon cord, dyes and the supplementary warp pickup technique. Each piece begins with a question I have posed to myself, and my objective is to explore the question. I choose images to represent ideas, and I assign meaning to shapes, images and colors. My choices are influenced by elements of the visual world that have interested me most: water, ruins, desert, hieroglyphics, churches and temples, maps, charts and diagrams. These objects and places act as symbols or evidence of time, history and experience.

Mojave
2000
Collage on Paper; 52 x 112 in.

Through my art, I seek connection with the oldest made things and with the soil from which they were shaped. For over twenty-five years, physical places have been wellsprings of inspiration for me: These include the dust-bitten badlands of the Southwestern U.S.; the Neolithic cave art sites of Southwestern France; and Iceland's volcanic landscape. I find that an intense experience in a natural site – the smells, feel, touch and cultural memory – imbues the place with a sacredness that demands something of me. Making art is the form of translation I use to touch the nerve and glimpse at the mystery of being alive and connected to land and people across time. I believe we stitch ourselves to the fabric of the land though art and language. This theme has played out in my paintings, collages, and fine art books. Travel increases my sense of humanity, makes me take risks, reveals and undermines my prejudices, and stretches my conceptions about art.

I probe the connections between human and earthen, the shared nature of our chemistries. I try to give visual form to the pulse of the land within myself, by coupling a conceptual idea with a sensual and well-crafted process.

Therman Statom

Kreml – Two Rivers
2000
7 boxes of aluminum, glass, paint, mixed media; 89.75 x 191.5 in.

Past and contemporary aspects of Russian culture were utilized in many of the images and forms that constitute this painting. This project was particularly interesting to me because of the remarkable changes during my own lifetime regarding Russian and U.S. relations. In many ways this relationship could apply to the world as a whole in regards to our universal need for peaceful resolution to our differences.