Starting in May, Philip Johnson's Glass House, that venerated icon of pared-back modernism, will change its game from utter transparency to smoke and mirrors, following in the footsteps of disappearing homes the world over. In recent years this see-through doozie has been visited by its late creator, a Times reporter, even Martha Stewart, and offered a single night's stay to anyone willing to spend $30K for the privilege, but this latest stunt is its first attempt at something more David Blaine-like. For 10 minutes an hour until the end of November, an installation staged by Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya will shroud the home in a cloud of artificial fog. Of the landscape surrounding his most famous work, Johnson once said that he had "very expensive wallpaper." Think of this as a temporary redecoration.
According to Design Boom, Nakaya's work will be the first site-specific art project in the structure's history. The effect he hopes to achieve involves "revealing and concealing the features of the environment," making "visible things become invisible and invisible things—like wind—become visible." The installation will be on view—and Johnson's masterpiece intermittently obscured—until the end of November, as a commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Glass House.
· Fujiko Nakaya wraps the Glass House in a veil of dense fog [Design Boom]
· All Glass House coverage [Curbed National]
·All Philip Johnson coverage [Curbed National]