The Totality of Time Lusters the Dusk | Chrysler Museum of Art

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Lauren Fensterstock (American, born 1975), *The Totality of Time Lusters the Dusk* (Installation Detail View), 2020, Glass, Swarovski crystal, quartz, obsidian, onyx, hematite, paper, Plexiglas, wood, cement, lath, and mixed media, Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Claire Oliver Gallery, Photo by Albert Ting

In this immersive installation, artist Lauren Fensterstock transforms a gallery within the Chrysler Museum of Art into a darkened and glittering cosmos.

Using the labor-intensive technique of mosaic, Fensterstock encrusts her three-dimensional sculptures of a comet and three rain clouds with a mixture of materials, including crystals, black glass, obsidian, onyx, and hematite. These sculptures are suspended from the ceiling, hovering over a lush garden landscape of black cut-paper grass and Plexiglas lakes. The installation invites the viewer into a mysterious world that transcends the earthly and heavenly realms.

“Fensterstock’s choice of semi-precious and glittery materials, including glass, lends her artwork an inescapably seductive quality. In addition, the artist’s signature black color palette invites the viewer to look more closely in order to see clearly.” – Carolyn Swan Needell, Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass

Fensterstock’s work captures the power and awe of natural phenomena. The artist explores how weather and celestial activity have been used by humans as metaphor; this is an especially potent idea in our current age of extreme weather and changing climate amid a devastating global pandemic. The black color and mirror-like shine of Fensterstock’s chosen materials allow the artist to refer to scrying, an ancient practice that uses dark reflective surfaces to see visions of the future. This installation is the first in a new series for the artist. It is inspired by early literary sources like The Book of Miracles, a richly illustrated sixteenth-century German manuscript.

Lauren Fensterstock (American, born 1975), *The Totality of Time Lusters the Dusk* (Installation View), 2020, Glass, Swarovski crystal, quartz, obsidian, onyx, hematite, paper, Plexiglas, wood, cement, lath, and mixed media, Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Claire Oliver Gallery, Photo by Ron Blunt

View the exhibition monograph to read more about Lauren Fensterstock’s artistic process: click here.

Commissioned by The Renwick Galleries of the Smithsonian American Art Museum for the 2020 Renwick Invitational, on loan from Claire Oliver Gallery, NY and the Artist.

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