<I>Orto Botanico</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2008
name: label: Created by
content: Therman Statom, American, born 1954
label: Subject of
content: Bessie Coleman, American, 1892 - 1926
notes: label: Caption
content: Therman Statom is best known for his innovative technique of fashioning sculptures and monumental installations from glass sheets, as opposed to the traditional methods of blowing and molding glass forms. Throughout his career, Statom has employed the house structure as a visual signifier for humanity, identity, and place. In Orto Botanico, Statom provides the viewer with numerous points of entry into his glass house and its contents. By doing so, he invites us to explore various concepts related to the house as a site of origin and belonging and as a place where significant objects, memories, and people are located. It is also a metaphor for the body, a location for those things that make us human—the soul, spirit, and mind.
label: Description
content: A sculpture in the form of a house, composed of clear, frosted, and painted glass panels, with an image of Bessie Coleman and several objects in the interior. The sculpture has a house structure with a pointed roof. The front piece of glass is partially frosted and has a small red rectangle with a black line painted on the bottom right side. The left side of the sculpture has frosted glass along the edges. The right side has a blue rectangle painted at the top, an orange triangle painted at the bottom, along with black and light blue lines painted on it. The back of the sculpture has partially frosted glass with a yellow rectangle painted in the middle. On the bottom middle of the back piece is a black and white photo of Bessie Coleman wearing a hat, scarf, and jacket. The inside of the sculpture shows a hand made of frosted glass and an abstract vase made of frosted glass with black vertical lines on it sitting on top of a mirrored rectangular base. Also inside of the sculpture is a blue glass object with a white object on top of it, a blue cylindrical object, and an abstract glass object.
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Alpert & Alpert Iron & Metal, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2023.100
objectType: label: Type
content: sculpture
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Therman Statom
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: glass and paint
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 83 × 24 3/4 × 24 3/4 in., 312 lb. (210.8 × 62.9 × 62.9 cm, 141.5 kg)