A Rainbow Like You

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A Rainbow Like You

Artist Katherine Gray (Canadian, born 1965)

Date2015

DimensionsTable: 37 × 54 × 33 in.

MediumBlown glass, acrylic, lighting

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Anderton Bentley Fund, Gift of Friends of Carl Staelin, Gift of Doreen C. Spitzer in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Ward M. Canaday, and Gift of Rabi Raffi Soleimani in memory of Raffi Soleimani, by exchange

Object number

2019.23

Not on View

DescriptionSupported by a clear, acrylic table, various shapes and sizes of blown colored glass vessels sit atop the table. Underneath and slightly in front of the table are two large theatrical lights that project light from below the table onto the adjacent wall. The work is meant to be displayed near a wall in order to have the colorful mural properly seen behind the work. The various vessels on the table are organized chromatically and have specific placements to create the reflect mural on the wall.

Label TextA Rainbow Like You is both glass and light installation. In this rainbow-hued work, Katherine Gray uses traditional blown vessels and theatrical lighting to express ideas about the transmission of light through another mode of glassmaking—stained glass. Often found in houses of worship, light filtered through stained glass is usually transmitted from high above to congregants seated below. Gray seeks to reverse this action and its implications, projecting light from below to create a rainbow as a colorful mural, evoking glass’s ability to refract light into its color spectrum. Gray is also commenting on the crowded display of glassware found in thrift stores today, which give greater visibility to the transparent and sometimes overlooked material that is so common to our everyday lives. Each of the glasses that are placed chromatically on the clear table was blown by Gray and collectively represent various styles from the history of global glassmaking.Published ReferencesThe Corning Museum of Glass, New Glass Review 41, Corning, New York, The Corning Museum of Glass, 2020, repr. (col). p. 126.Exhibition HistoryNew York, Heller Gallery, This Makes Me Think of That, May 29- July 10, 2015. Los Angeles, California, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Katherine Gray: As Clear as the Experience, May 27-September 9, 2018. Toledo Museum of Art, Katherine Gray: (Being) In a Hotshop, February 9-May 12, 2019.