Rik Allen, Seeker, 2013. Glass, steel, aluminum. H 180, W 66, D 66 in. photo: KP studios. courtesy: Museum of Northwest Art.
Contemporary glass artist Rik Allen has expanded the scale of his latest work featured in his solo exhibition titled “Seeker” at the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) in La Conner, Washington. The exhibition, which closes this Sunday June 9th, showcases Allen’s most ambitious creation yet: a 15-foot glass and metal site-specific rocket designed for the curved wall of the MoNA main gallery.
The massive size of the rocket, titled “Seeker,” from which the show draws its name, has been inspiring and exciting for Allen, who, in an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet, said he plans to “continue exploring this scale and experimenting with various surfaces, including glass panels and sheeting.” As such a large installation, the sculpture has required a sturdy structural support, which Allen supplements mostly with steel and an “aluminum skin” for the hull. Allen’s goal has been to get as close as possible to an actual space exploration vehicle, and the surrounding environmental context of the museum further aids in evoking this idea.
Allen explains that he, “built this with the space in mind, having a beautiful round entrance gallery with an open space above that cuts into the second floor, and a large round sky dome off the center from the space. I had always wanted to make something to work with this unique architectural space, designed by Henry Klein.”
Lifted high above the viewer’s gaze, the rocket’s height is accentuated by its “long legs stretching into the sky,” as the surrounding museum space serves as Allen’s imagined observatory. Centered inside the spacecraft, but piercing the exterior hull, is a partially metal telescope derived from both blown and cast glass. Allen has also situated a red chair within the interior, tucked quietly at the telescope’s eyepiece.
“The little red chair is a recurring narrative is some works,” Allen has explained. “It serves as a seat for the mind, but also as a simple placeholder for the observer to sit down, strap in and get rolling…”
All the discreet components like the red chair and telescope within the hull serve in collectively communicating this narrative of both outer and inner inquiry and exploration to the viewer—something that Allen’s artworks share. Many of his past works have been smaller-scale spacecrafts and machines that also bring viewers into a fantastical or futuristic space world, albeit one with a retro quality, a future as it may have been imagined in the past.
Though some of Allen’s narratives are recurring, most emerge freshly in the process. Allen believes it is natural for the narrative to emerge in the process, which is both his joy and struggle as an artist. Allen’s complicated fusion of both metals and glass is not new to his work either, but he asserts that it “has definitely evolved over time.” For years, Allen cites working very closely with Jeremy Bosworth, and their creative partnership allowed them to devise more options and strategies for Allen’s complex designs.
In many of Allen’s designs, he creates a metal “skin” that both serves as the hull and obscures the glass beneath the surface. Allen finds pleasure in each new discovery if new ways to mix glass and metal, which “seem to lead to more dynamic options.”
The materiality of his creations has implicit aesthetic functions, but it also aids his conceptual communication: “The combination of crusty opacity and strength with delicate transparency is so enticing to me. The metal also gives me ability to create levity in the work, both in the sense of humor and physical lightness or weightlessness.”
Allen’s use of metal additionally allows “the work to be put forth in motion—if not just hovering—as well as producing a potential energy, like in the instances where a staircase, escalator, or ladder is present.” Allen displays this idea with the elongated metal ladder on the exterior of his rocket that connects the ground to an opening of the inner vessel.
Also unique to Allen’s artwork is the deliberate use of physical wear and imperfection. Since the beginning of his glass career, Allen says he has “always been interested in cutting through the shine.” In particular, he has been rebelling against the aesthetic of “tight, clean, symmetrical vessel work by trying to find ways to introduce a more organic, rough, and certainly a wabi-sabi aesthetic.”
When probed further, Allen states that, “Perhaps the genesis of this came out of an ongoing lack of interest in ‘refining’ techniques to tightness, or maybe simply, I was too lazy to remove bubbles, so I put more in. Scavo, aluminum foil, metal shavings, and powders were all used in my earlier work to produce an image of use and history. The rust and crust of an old ship hull has an incredible loveliness to me.”
Allen’s assumption of this distinctive aesthetic reflects his personal deep-rooted fascination with science and robotics, in which he saw beauty in “old scientific equipment and laboratories, and no doubt, an antiquated vision of the future.” As a child, Allen believes “everything from metallic hulls of Flash Gordon and Jules Vern’s ships, to the science labs of the early horror films” just “clicked” with him as much more appealing than modern visions of the future. Allen acknowledges that what he sees “is most certainly a nostalgic, romantic vision” of the order and creation of the universe.
When describing his futiristic world, Allen states: “I envision the development of the basic elements of scientific principles, with clouded glass Leyden jars, metal flasks, reinforced iron boilers and lots of copper and brass rivets and grommets.”
Though “Seeker” is closing this Sunday, Allen’s continuation of his distinctive aesthetic is assured. With a packed schedule of exhibitions and showings, his work continues to inspire inquiry and exploration for his audiences. From now until June 30th, his work, as well as that of his wife, Shelley Muzylowski Allen, will be on display at a group glass show at the Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They will also be participating in GlassBoston and have another group show at the Lanoue Fine Art gallery. Both events will be both occurring on June 14th in Boston.
—Gina DeCagna
IF YOU GO: “Seeker”Rik AllenThrough June 9th, 2013The Museum of Northwest Contemporary Art121 South First StreetLa Conner, Washington 98257Website: www.museumofnwart.org