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Title
Jonah
Artist
C. Matthew Szösz
Year
2026
Medium
Glass, Steel
Dimensions
52’-0" x 65’-0" x 20'-0"
Description of Artwork
Jonah exploits the architecture of its site to create an abstraction of the Great Fish of the Jonah parable that travelers can experience from below, above, and inside.
Physically, it encloses the Promenade level mezzanine of the Skybridge 5 escalator well in two dazzling, semi transparent articulated walls of dichroic glass panels, and occupies the center atrium with a stylized mirrored glass whale's mouth holding a great glowing pearl, present in early Hebrew texts of the Jonah myth.
Metaphorically, it speaks about both the physical similarities of airline travel to Jonah's experience within the whale, and of the conceptual similarities of the surreal space of Jonah's whale and the placeless in-betweeness of the airport for the traveller.
About the Artist
Born in Rhode Island in 1974, C. Matthew Szösz is the product of the combined efforts of the Rhode Island School of Design’s Industrial Design and Glass departments. His work hovers at the intersection of Art, Design and Craft, and explores the relationship between the physical and our experience of wonder, beauty and self.
Matthew has won a variety of prizes, grants and residencies which has allowed him to meet and work with friends, colleagues and collaborators across four continents and dozens of institutions in the past twelve years. His work is featured in a variety of publications, public and private collections, and public spaces. He enjoys working as an educator, and has taught, lectured and given numerous workshops in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
He currently lives and works in Seattle with his wife, Anna Mlasowsky.
