More than 10,000 individual glass droplets have been strung up in the atrium of the Design and Media Center at Boston's MassArt, the culmination of a project by the college's visiting professor Dan Clayman that is being unveiled this evening. The work is entitled Rainfield, and was constructed during "Structured Light," an interdisciplinary course with 18 MassArt students who worked alongside the Providence-based artist to realize this piece that measures 60-feet long. The completed project represents the largest-scale work Clayman has completed, the latest in his assemblage works that aggregate multiple glass elements to create a massive structure, as he did in his 2014 work Dispersion at Brown University. The installation will remain on view through summer,
“Rainfield is my largest project to date and I so appreciate how the MassArt community came together as a team to help bring my idea to life,” said Clayman, “from the students who participated in all the fabrication, to the faculty and administration,” said Clayman in a prepared statement. The idea for the work came to the artist when he was caught in a sudden downpour, and took note of the unique environment and light of the experience, which he seeks to capture in his latest installation.
“We’re fortunate to have an artist of Clayman’s caliber to provide this unique opportunity to students as their Visiting Professor, being inspired by his vision and working together on this project, from concept to installation,” said MassArt president David Nelson. “Rainfield is a perfect example of experiential learning, a hallmark of MassArt education, preparing our students for a lifetime of creative opportunity.”