Glass Sculptures by Norwood Viviano Cast Iconic City Skylines Atop Emblems of Local Industry

“I find myself looking at the world as a surveyor—telling stories through objects,” says Norwood Viviano, whose kiln-cast glass sculptures map iconic city skylines through each location’s recognizable industries. Houston oil, Pittsburgh steel, and Portland timber are represented alongside odes to Detroit “Motor City” and Toledo, “The Glass City.”

Through conversations with historians, urban planners, demographers, climate scientists, and statisticians, Viviano studies layers of data and lore to build an understanding of each city. He then undertakes a meticulous process of three-dimensional computer modeling and printing, combined with glass-blowing and casting, to create bold skylines and gridded layouts. He maps the distinctive patterns of buildings, roads, and bridges, superimposing them onto objects representative of each locale, like a series of cut crystal tumblers supporting Toledo or an automobile engine carrying Detroit.

Viviano’s ancestors immigrated from Sicily in the early 1900s. He grew up in Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s, a period of immense economic upheaval in the city due to auto manufacturers’ restructuring efforts and white flight. “I initially wanted to examine the power dynamic between industry and the early immigrant population in the city of Detroit,” Viviano says. “This then led me to research other periods of history where major population shifts took place and their relationship to rapid industrial growth and decline.”

Find more on Viviano’s website.

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