In November, 1999 Catherine Rahn exhibited work at the SOFA (Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art) Exposition in Chicago where her dealer was Riley-Hawk Gallery.

 

SCUBA divers rapidly become familiar with deep pools and wall dives. For this exhibition, Rahn created two installations inspired by the ocean realm.

 

For the first, she created a pool filled with glass, intended to evoke both the beauty and confusion divers encounter when they dive on intricate coral reefs  teeming with life or on sunken boats, masked by shadows.

 

For the second, she attached her glass sea stars to walls, evoking the experience of a diver descending a reef wall, deeper and deeper into the ocean.

 

The Deep Pool, above, with benches for sitting around the edges, a tall Uranium Yellow vase at center that was drilled to form a bubbling fountain, and visible in some of the shots below, a mirrored bottom.

In the shot of the Deep Pool above, you see the Uranium Yellow vessel inspired by the vase Louis Tiffany mounted at the center of his home on Long Island, Laurelton Hall. The Sea Stars appear to be colonizing some sunken ruins.

 

 

One visitor called the Deep Pool "Scuba Aesthetic." You gain a sense of this from the photo above of one of the glass Eels mysteriously attracted to the spotlight. The grid structure at lower right is the ceiling of the Exposition Hall reflected in the blue mirrored bottom of the pool.

 

 

The image above shows stars climbing the walls of the booth. Below, an overview of the booth at SOFA Chicago, Riley-Hawk Gallery.

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