Inspired by his experience exploring underwater worlds, Dale Chihuly’s glass sculpture echoes the unfurling form of a clam. The Italian term ‘macchia’ of the title refers to densely growing flora, and is adopted by the artist to describe the fine undulations typical of the molluscs, corals and other marine invertebrates that he conjures in seven pieces of glass.

The semi-translucent beauty of this sculpture resonates with the qualities of the ocean, where light is captured, refracted and transmitted endlessly, responding to the infinitely variable climatic conditions of the marine environment. Variability is crucial to Chihuly’s process; his experimental approach departs from the aspirations of symmetry and perfection of traditional glassmaking, instead allowing gravity and centrifugal forces to shape the molten material in spontaneous ways.