Innerland
Object NameSculpture
Artist
Eric Hilton
(British, b. Scotland 1937)
Assistant
Ladislav Havlik
(Czech, 1925 - 2021)
Assistant
Lubomir Richter
(b. Czechoslovakia, 1936)
Assistant
Roger Selander
(American, b. 1945)
Cutter
Mark Witter
Engraver
Peter Schelling
(b. 1933)
Factory
Steuben Glass, Inc.
(1903-)
Made FromLead Glass
Date1980
Place MadeUnited States, NY, Corning
TechniqueCast, ground, polished, sandblasted, cut, engraved, assembled
SizeOverall H: 9.9 cm, W: 49.3 cm, D: 49.3 cm
Accession Number86.4.180
Credit LineAnonymous gift
Curatorial Area(s)
Exhibitions
The Cutting Edge: 200 Years of the Crystal Object
Not On View
Interpretive Notes"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.
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.
Provenance
about 25 BCE-50 CE
about 1957
