The Glass House presents Fujiko Nakaya: Veil May 1 to November 30, 2014

Coinciding with the 65th anniversary of the Glass House and its 2014 tour season, the Glass House will present Fujiko Nakaya: Veil, the first site-specific artist project to engage the iconic Glass House itself, designed by Philip Johnson and completed in 1949.

Nakaya, a Japanese artist who has produced fog sculptures and environments internationally, will wrap the Glass House in a veil of dense mist that comes and goes. For approximately 10 to 15 minutes each hour, the Glass House will appear to vanish, only to return as the fog dissipates. Inside the structure, the sense of being outdoors will be temporarily suspended during the misty spells.

Veil will stage a potent dialogue with the Glass House, producing an opaque atmosphere to meet the building's extreme transparency and temporal effects that complement its timelessness. Johnson's interest in the balance of opposites is evident throughout the Glass House campus. With Nakaya's temporary installation, this sensibility is carried  to its endpoint while allowing the unique magic of the Glass House - the dream of transparency, an architecture that vanishes - to return again and again as the fog rises and falls.

The Glass House, situated on a promontory overlooking a valley, is subject to changing wind patterns, as well as variable temperature and humidity, that will continually influence the interchange between Veil and the building it shrouds. Fresh water, pumped at high pressure through 600 nozzles, will produce an immersive environment that reveals these dynamic conditions.  

Fog responds constantly to its own surroundings, revealing and concealing the features of the environment. Fog makes visible things become invisible and invisible things - like wind - become visible. The drama of Nakaya's work rests in the continuous interplay between what is visible and what is not. Known coordinates vanish, only to be replaced by a miasma, rich in changing phenomenological effects, that evoke a sense of mystery, foreboding, and wonder.

This installation is part of a greater initiative to transform the Glass House campus into a center for contemporary art and ideas, in particular those that foster new interpretations of the historic site's meanings. The exhibition will be accompanied by public programs at the Glass House and in New York City.

Nakaya has created fog installations around the world, including projects for the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; the Grand Palais, Paris; the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; and the Exploratorium, San Francisco, among others. She consulted with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the Blur Building for the 2002 Swiss Expo, and has worked with numerous artists (including Trisha Brown, David Tudor, and Bill Viola) on environments for music and performance. This will be her first large-scale installation on the east coast of the United States and the first time her work has been presented at an internationally renowned historic site.

The Glass House, built between 1949 and 1995 by architect Philip Johnson, is a National Trust Historic Site located in New Canaan, CT. The pastoral 49-acre landscape comprises fourteen structures, including the Glass House (1949), and features a permanent collection of 20th-century painting and sculpture, along with temporary exhibitions. The tour season runs from May to November and advance reservations are required. For more information, please visit www.theglasshouse.org.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation (www.PreservationNation.org) is a privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save America's historic places to enrich our future, re-imagining historic sites for the 21st century. The guiding principle of this initiative is that historic sites must be dynamic, relevant, and evolving in order to foster an understanding of history and culture that is critical, sensory, and layered.

Visitor Information:
The Glass House Visitor Center and Design Store
199 Elm Street, New Canaan, CT 06840
Open Thursday - Monday, 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Tickets start at $30, including tour of the site.
For general information, please call 203.594.9884 or visit the Glass House online: www.theglasshouse.org.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Special Kids Tour of the Glass House in New Canaan

If your children are budding young architects and art lovers the special children’s tour offered by the Philip Johnson Glass House might be of interest.

The Glass House is offering special after-school tours for children only, ages 9-13 in grades 5-8. Tours will begin and end at the Glass House Visitor Center located on 199 Elm Street directly across from the New Canaan Train Station.

Space is limited to 12 children ensuring a fun and comprehensive tour of this cultural gem. 

The children will be shuttled to the Glass House for an interactive tour of the entire property and its buildings. Parents will drop off their children at the Visitors  Center at 4 p.m. and pick them up at 5:30 p.m. Children should dress for the weather and wear walking shoes for this tour of the property and buildings.

Tickets are $20 per child.  Tours take place on Sept. 23, and 30; October 7, 21, and 28. As an added bonus, children participating in this tour will receive the book From Saltbox to the Glass House, generously donated by the New Canaan Preservation Alliance.   For tickets visit: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/923181.  For more information call 203.594.9884 or visit http://philipjohnsonglasshouse.org

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Glass House - Exhibition through November

The Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is hosting two exhibits, SNAP and Gnomon/ Wave this summer and fall that are unique to this fascinating attraction in Fairfield County.

E.V. DAY: SNAP!
On view May 2 - November 30, 2013

SNAP! is a site-specific exhibition by New York-based artist E.V. Day. Conceived for the building known as Da Monsta (1995), the last building completed by Philip Johnson on the Glass House campus, SNAP! comprises four recent sculptures as well as site-specific installations for the building's interior and exterior. E.V. Day is the first artist the Glass House has invited to reinterpret the building, originally intended as a visitor center and now used as a project space for contemporary art.

Upon arrival at the Glass House, visitors will immediately encounter Day's reinterpretation of Da Monsta. Responding to Philip Johnson's statement that "the building is alive," Day boldly casts a series of massive red nets across its undulating volume, capturing and staking Da Monsta to the ground. The interaction between artwork and building continues inside. 

After entering Da Monsta, visitors first see individual sculptures by Day, including Spinneret (a study for Spidey Striptease), 2008; Wet Net, 2009; Pollinator, 2011; and Bandage Dress (white with chain), 2012. Once viewers enter the second gallery, they encounter a dramatic, site-specific installation that explores the expressive contours of Da Monsta with a deconstructed Herve Leger Bandage dress deployed as an architectural element.

NIGHT (1947-2015)
Tauba Auerbach, Gnomon/Wave Fulgurite I.I, 2013
On view May 2 – September 1, 2013

The Glass House will debut New York-based artist Tauba Auerbach's Gnomon/ Wave, a sculpture made for Night (1947 – 2015), a "sculpture-In-residence" series presented on the Mies van der Rohe glass coffee table inside the Glass House. Auerbach's first sand sculpture, Gnomon/Wave evokes a solid wave of light composed of tiny particles. The physical form of the work resembles that of a gnomon, the vertical shadow casting part of a sundial.

Throughout the day, Gnomon/Wave will cast a moving shadow along and through the glass table where it rests. It will be on view until early September 2013. Night (1947 – 2015) presents a series of contemporary sculptures that contend with the legacy of Night, a 1947 sculpture by Alberto Giacometti that disappeared from the Glass House in the mid-1960s, as well as the architecture of the Glass House itself. Guest curator Jordan Stein organized this unfolding sculpture exhibition, held in the same spot where Giacometti's Night once stood, over the course of three years. On display for three to six months at a time, the individual works presented in Night (1947 – 2015) each "disappear" after their run, making room for new works and new absences.

About the Glass House

Built between 1949 and 1995 by architect Philip Johnson, the Glass House is a National Trust Historic Site located in New Canaan, CT. The pastoral 49-acre landscape comprises fourteen structures, including the Glass House (1949), and features a permanent collection of 20th century painting and sculpture, along with temporary exhibitions. The tour season runs from May to November and advance reservations are required. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit www.philipjohnsonglasshouse.org.  For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

Philip Johnson Glass House Annouces “A Modern Picnic”

The annual dining and culinary event at The Philip Johnson Glass House will take place on June 9, 2012. The Philip Johnson Glass House is a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The event is called,  “A Modern Picnic”, and will provide event goers a repertoire of  unique dining and culinary experiences. Participants will be  invited to meet award-winning chefs and artisans from across the country; and explore the buildings, grounds and art collections of the 29-acre Glass House site. This event takes place from 12 noon to 3 PM.

One of the favorite activities of this event takes place at 6:30 PM. The event’s culmination is the popular  “Food Festival Under the Stars”.  It is pure magic to experience the Glass House as the sun sets, while watching and tasting what’s on screen as the Food Festival presents a multi-sensory experience.  Visitors are offered the added  bonus of meeting  the filmmakers, artisans and chefs behind these award winning food and dining films.