Garden Chaos
Artist
Toots Zynsky
(American, born 1951)
Date1993
Mediumfilet de verre
DimensionsOverall: 7 1/4 × 10 1/2 × 8 in. (18.4 × 26.7 × 20.3 cm)
ClassificationsGlass
Credit LineGift of Warren and Margot Coville, 2022
Object numberTR2022.24.38
In the early 1970s, Toots Zynsky was one of the first students to study at
the Rhode Island School of Design’s new glass program headed by Dale
Chihuly. She worked in a number of traditional glassmaking techniques, from
glassblowing to casting, before she first experimented with the laborious
task of hand-pulling glass threads. In the 1980s, Zynsky developed a
machine for pulling glass threads in large quantities. This career-defining
technique, filet de verre, means glass threads. To make works like Garden
Chaos, the artist layers thousands of glass threads into a composition and
fuses them in a kiln. Next, the three-dimensional shape is heat-formed using
molds, followed by Zynsky reaching into the kiln while wearing heatresistant
gloves and squeezing the glass into its undulating form. Zynsky
is a briliant colorist, and her work from the 1990s has been described as
painting in glass. Often finding inspiration in nature and her travels, the
artist's work continues to evolve with new series and color combinations.
On View
On viewLocation
- Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion, 2nd Floor, gallery, wall case 4
c. 1890-1900
Late 16th or early 17th century
ca. 1600
