Innerland

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Object Name: 
Sculpture
Title: 
Innerland
Accession Number: 
86.4.180
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 9.9 cm, W: 49.3 cm, D: 49.3 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
1980
Credit Line: 
Anonymous gift
Web Description: 
"Art is one of the foundations of the life experience. It echoes through all human history. We decipher it like a code to communicate with our ancestral memory."–Eric Hilton This sculpture is based on the dramatic landscapes of Hilton’s native Scotland, with their sweeping vistas of ocean and treeless moors. Innerland refers to how Hilton feels when he visits his traditional crofter’s stone cottage in remote northwestern Scotland. But the sculpture is also a metaphor for the inner landscape of the mind. Hilton populates this landscape of the mind—the landscape of memory and imagination—with complex forms and lines that appear and disappear within the sculpture’s many glass cubes. Innerland was made with Mark Witter, who assisted with the cutting, and it was engraved by Ladislav Havlik, Lubomir Richter, Peter Schelling, and Roger Selander.
Primary Description: 
Sculpture, "Innerland". Colorless lead glass; cast, cut, engraved, sandblasted, polished. Square; thirty-eight cut pieces which, when assembled, form 25 cubes placed together in a thick, flat, square; engraved and sandblasted imagery projects into glass from the underside and sides of components except for one large engraved lens which rests on surface (4B). Design consists of an imaginary landscape radiating from (3C), the center, five-part cube consisting of a free central squared column containing a small "cell" air trap and four beveled free sides with engraved imagery of a fortress walls. The fortress walls extend into the four adjacent cubes (4C, 3B, 3D, and 2C). Cubes (3D and 3E) join together to create the main path to the fortress intersected by two gates and a small free diamond-shaped prism (3D/E) sitting between both blocks, path flanked by low mountains. The remaining space can roughly be divided into four quadrants (moving clockwise from the back left corner): The first quadrant consists of (1A, 2A, 1B, and 2B), which form bursting concentric circles of energy and intertwined tree roots surrounding a faceted, pyramidal mountain; the roots/energy lines develop into a tree in (5C) and wind down into (3A). The second quadrant consists of (4A) block divided horizontally into two parts with large split center air trap, (5A) mountain with central air trap, (5Bab) two-part block with center free cylindrical column, and (4B) honeycomb of small polished "eye" lenses, which expand to fill nearly all of (4C) and some of (5C). The third quadrant consists of (4D, 5D, 4E, and 5E) four blocks surrounding free four-sided columnar prism with central small air trap (4D/E), each block has concentric rings of energy/roots leading from a "tree of life". The fourth quadrant consists of (1D) vortex/mountain surrounding small air trap, (1Ea) a cube with cloud formation on two sides and concentric ring/roots and also contains a cylindrical free column (1Eb), (2Db) a free, thin, flat lens which sits on top of (2Da) cube and is engraved with abstracted image of flying bird, and (5E), a cube with engraved flowers and abstract vegetal tendrils.
The Cutting Edge: 200 Years of the Crystal Object
Venue(s)
M. H. De Young Memorial Museum 1992-02-22 through 1992-05-17
Toledo Museum of Art 1992-06-30 through 1992-08-22
National Museum of American History 1992-10-03 through 1993-01-24
Denver Art Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design (2018) illustrated, p. 259 (bottom);
Escort Guide to the Galleries (2013) illustrated, p. 39; BIB# 134015
Flawless Until the End (2012-01) illustrated, p. 49;
Corning Museum of Glass 60 Years (2011) illustrated, p. 13, bottom left; BIB# 138760
Hilton Innerland (family) (2011)BIB# 134406
Hilton Innerland (adult) (2011)BIB# 134407
Contemporary Glass Sculptures and Panels: Selections from the Corning Museum of Glass (2008) illustrated, p. 38, 94-95 (fig. 77, plate 23); BIB# 107478
Czech and Slovak Glass in Exile (2007) illustrated, p. 16; BIB# 100066
Steuben Design (2004) illustrated, pp. 104, 105; BIB# 84868
Eric Hilton: A Love of Nature Expressed in Glass (2004) illustrated, p. 8; BIB# AI64447
Steuben Glass: An American Tradition in Crystal (2003 edition) (2003) pp. 18-19, 21, 43, 170-171; BIB# 75000
Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design (2002) illustrated, 9-12, fig. 9.34; BIB# 68554
The Art of Glass: Masterpieces from the Corning Museum (1992-06) illustrated, p. 55;
The Cutting Edge: 200 Years of Crystal (1992) fig. 44; BIB# 35042
Panorama: Muzeinoe steklo (1992) illustrated, p. 55 (right); BIB# AI99388
A Short History of Glass (1990 edition) (1990) illustrated, p. 104, 107; #90; BIB# 33211
Masterpieces of Glass: A World History From The Corning Museum of Glass (1990) illustrated, pp. 224-225, pl. 104; BIB# 33819
Recent Important Acquisitions, 29 (1987) illustrated, pp. 130-131, #51; BIB# AI19055
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1986 (1987) illustrated, cover; p. 4, 6; BIB# AI96383
Recent Acquisitions: Corning (New Work) (1986) p. 38; BIB# AI16861
Launching the Imagination illustrated, p. 249 fig. 11.24; BIB# 140420