Join The Community Library docents for a late afternoon tour of the Ulysses Cylinders, on display in the Library’s foyer through January 10, 2020.
Inspired by James Joyce’s novel, the Ulysses Cylinders combine the alchemic artistry of Dale Chihuly with painter Seaver Leslie’s pen and ink drawings to create a unique collection of golden glass Cylinders.
Chihuly’s and Leslie’s love of Ireland and Irish literature inspired an earlier series, Irish Cylinders, over forty years ago. In the summer of 2013, Chihuly and Leslie, together with Flora C. Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick decided to revisit this body of work focusing on Joyce’s Ulysses as the sole inspiration. Working with Leslie’s drawings on paper, artists Mace and Kirkpatrick constructed fragile glass drawings, which Chihuly’ s team amalgamated into individual Cylinders of glass wrapped in gold leaf. By applying Leslie’s adapted drawings to simple cylindrical forms, Chihuly uses the Cylinder as a canvas to create a series of visual portals into the novel.
The exhibit at The Community Library includes 23 cylinders from the set of 45. This is the third exhibition of the Cylinders. They first exhibited at Dublin Castle in June 2014, and then at the Vassar College Thompson Library in 2015.
The Community Library would like to thank the Dale and Leslie Chihuly Foundation and the Chihuly Studio for the loan of this exhibition.
