Publisher's Synopsis
"Chihuly Over Venice," the project to create chandeliers in the world's great glass centres, began in the tiny Finnish village of Nuutajarvi, north of Helsinki, in June 1995. Working with the artisans of the Hackman factory, well-known for it's production of the great modernist designs of Aalto, Sarpaneva, and other Finnish masters, Chihuly and his American glass blowers created the first of the 14 chandeliers that would be installed in Venice the following year. In this oversized, loose-leaf portfolio, 26 full-collar reproductions document that summer's glass-blowing session - when the sun never truly set and the energy of the 40 Americans and their Finnish collaborators never dimmed. Russell Johnson's photographs record the chandeliers and installations that temporarily transformed the Finnish landscape into a magical land with chandeliers swaying in the trees and glass 'belugas' bobbing in the waters of Nuutajarvi River. Also included in this artist's portfolio are reproductions of the drawings that inspired the glass works and four of the hundreds of faxes that Chihuly sent to describe that 'wild and wonderful time' in Finland.
