|
SCULPTURE IN MOTION: Art Choreographed by Nature, at the Atlanta Botanical Garden
curated by Sculpturesite Gallery
SOME WORKS ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE! Please inquire.
May 3
-
October 31, 2008
|
| |
 Sculpturesite Gallery is pleased to announce its collaboration with the Atlanta Botanical Garden for an important exhibition of kinetic sculpture from May 3rd, through October 31st, 2008.
SEE 24 UNIQUE KINETIC SCULPTURES BY 16 PROMINENT SCULPTORS LISTED BELOW WITH LINKS TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS.
All works except the George Rickey are offered for sale, with proceeds, in part, going to support mission-related endeavors of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Shipping worldwide. Commissions are also available. Please direct inquiries to Sculpturesite Gallery. 40 page full color catalogue available $16.
Sculpturesite Gallery is pleased to announce its collaboration with the Atlanta Botanical Garden for an important exhibition of kinetic sculpture from May 3rd, through October 31st, 2008.
SEE 24 UNIQUE KINETIC SCULPTURES BY 16 PROMINENT SCULPTORS LISTED BELOW WITH LINKS TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS.
All works except the George Rickey are offered for sale, with proceeds, in part, going to support mission-related endeavors of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Shipping worldwide. Commissions are also available. Please direct inquiries to Sculpturesite Gallery. 40 page full color catalogue available $16.
|
|
 |
|
LIN EMERY Rocker and Butterfly 2008 Lin Emery, the most respected woman kinetic sculptor of our time, is internationally recognized for her delightful abstractions of harmonic patterns.
A grouping of six of her edition pieces Butterfly and Rocker evoke a whimsical flock hovering just above the water, softening the hard lines of the Conservatory Pond with their whimsical geometry.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
ZACHARY COFFIN Rockspinner 6 2007 Zachary Coffin’s interactive installations emphasize the tension created by testing the limits of the laws of physics in presenting seemingly impossible gravitational situations. In Rockspinner 6, Coffin first found the exact center of gravity of a magnificent five-ton granite boulder –quarried near Atlanta-, inset an extremely low-friction bearing and installed it atop a minimal, but sturdy stainless steel shaft. The resulting ten-foot tall sculpture can be set into a spin by a small child, and continue its completely silent rotation for a stunning length of time, due to the use of an ultra-lightweight lubricant. Yet, the highly specialized technology is hidden here as the massive monolith’s connects the viewer with quintessential nature.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
|
 |
|
BRAD HOWE Spindle 2008 The exuberant mobiles of Brad Howe bring to mind the sense of playful wonder that Calder exhibited unequivocally during his long career. Equilibrium is the principle in use here, with balance delicately achieved through a thin bent wire armature and polyurethane coated aluminum shapes. Howe is also a brilliant colorist who ventures far from the primary palette with incomparable results of harmony and wit.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
SACHIKO KODAMA Morpho Tower 2008 Morpho Tower, Sachiko Kodama’s mesmerizing synthesis of science, technology and art rises like an eccentric thorny botanical form within the world of most peculiar botanical forms housed in the Cactus Conservatory. Employing electromagnets and magnetically-charged microfine particles suspended in
oil set in motion through a computer controller, Kodama, who is associate professor at Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications, explores an entirely new territory where the seductive glossy black liquid seems to turn into rows of solid spikes impeccably organized around a spiraling cone, only to dissolve abruptly into obvious liquidity once again –a rhythmic flow and ebb, an alchemic dance where the artist playfully communicates basic principles of physics without elucidating them.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
JEFFERY LAUDENSLAGER Hokusai 2008 Jeffery Laudenslager has taken the dramatic periods of perceived danger that George Rickey favored to an extreme in his elegant works, and he expresses the predicament of the almost colliding elements most eloquently, aided by the speed he gains by using the extremely light-weight and resilient metal titanium. But it is the long, sweet release into graceful recovery that is Laudenslager’s signature. Hokusai, a fluid twenty foot tall work inspired by the nineteenth century Japanese artist’s woodblock prints illustrating waves, is composed of three counter-weighted and slightly curved titanium moving elements, attached sequentially to a larger stainless steel beam, that undulate freely then suddenly revert in a puzzling swoop.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
|
 |
|
KRISTINA LUCAS Masdevallia Extravaganza 2008 Kristina Lucas’ kinetic installations are witty site specific “metaphors of things coming together, bursting forth, exploding in space, highlighting the potential of physical energy.” (6) In Masdevallia Extravanza, Lucas delineates the orchid she admires with over seven hundred individual triangles of holographically coated or dichroic acrylic, fastidiously hung in close correlation in the Garden’s Orchid House. One is reminded of Cornelia Parker’s suspended works, where the repetition of the vertical hanging lines is as important as the repetition of the unitized objects, but by using light refraction and reflection on a transparent material, Lucas achieves a diaphanous effect punctuated by the occasional brightly colored accent, a wondrous, luminous creation.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
MOTO OHTAKE Airborne 2008 Moto Ohtake also references what is sometimes referred to as the “anatomy of nature” in his sculpture, but his “life long interest in the manifestations of nature on a micro and macroscopic level” have encouraged him to juxtapose cosmic symbolism with abstract interpretations of simple shapes found in nature and representations of their crystalline structure. Airborne 2008, as sited among the Garden’s magnificent trees, stands as a fantastical, esoteric tree with shimmering stainless steel leaves, a perfect juxtaposition of “opposing factors such as chaos and order, simplicity and complexity”, a reminder that all living organisms are intrinsically interconnected.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
SUSAN PASCAL BERAN Starburst II E.N. 2008 For Susan Pascal Beran, who has been creating kinetic sculpture to celebrate the interplay of form and function in nature for close to thirty years, harnessing unseen forces of nature in her animated compositions means layering universes of aerodynamic micro-elements using gimbals, rotors and pivots in complex systems. The use of color echoes nature here, where other sculptors would reflect it. Searound II, Wind and Water Dragon III and Starbust II E.N. are exhibited among the beautiful world of water lilies and lotuses in the Garden’s largest pond; the first two works are activated by water, while the third is wind driven.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
|
|
 |
|
ROGER PHILLIPS Figure 8 on Open Rectangle 2006 A self-declared Constructivist, Roger Phillips creates meticulously abstract wind driven sculptures where the circles, diamonds or triangles are always spinning around a vertical axis. Yet far from tedious, the motion of the thin, glossy aluminum shapes, suspended within the contrasting stainless steel linear compositions, is surprisingly unpredictable. The works magnificently sited near the Conservatory Pond, Figure 8 in Open Rectangle and Split Disk in Rectangle, are disconcerting as one watches the top and bottom elements first move at different speeds, then in opposing directions, yet they are also spellbinding as the Garden’s plantings are first subtly reflected on the bright red surfaces, then revealed fully through the windows -negative spaces magically created by the disappearing discs.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
|
 |
|
TROY PILLOW Circus Peanuts 2005 Troy Pillow also found a strong influence in Calder (both his mobiles and stabiles). But it is Pillow’s ability to bring the environment into his contemplative work through the ingenuous use of stainless steel polished to a mirror finish, reflecting both the painted parts of the sculpture and its surroundings at it gently shimmers, that is truly exciting as it communicates an enchanting blurring of boundaries between sculpture, viewer and setting. In Circus Peanuts, the reflective surfaces are small rectangular paddles that rotate around a common vertical axis set off-center to the bright orange stabile element; they become in turn windows or mirrors.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
|
 |
|
TIM PRENTICE Yellow Zingers 2008 Yellow Zingers, as installed in two relatively parallel lines of 48 feet each, running among the canopy of two elm trees, forms two bright yellow snaky lines that rush toward each other, then away, ceaselessly rearranging themselves, yet utterly harmonious at all times. If Prentice’s kinetic sculpture was compared to music, Yellow Zingers would be a delicious melody and Easel Windframe a serious tonal composition set within a whimsical framework.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
RALFONSO GSCHWEND Dance with the Wind 2007 Ralfonso Gschwend, who shares his time between his native Switzerland and Florida, employs air currents, light and water in his impressive kinetic sculpture. Dance with the Wind is the nine foot tall maquette he created for a thirty foot sculpture commissioned for the Beijing Olympics. A striking illustration of compound pendulums, this dynamic work is composed of stacked spheres in decreasing diameter, each swaying within a dimensional perimeter that pivots independently, suggesting an oversized and unhinged shimmering necklace. Reminiscent of the exquisitely polished experiential public sculpture of Anish Kapoor, this sculpture uses the reflection of its environment to pull the viewer in, while the rhythmic oscillations conjure chaos.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
GEORGE RICKEY Two Lines Oblique 1969 Two Lines Oblique, Atlanta, 1969, on loan from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, is a classic example of the monumental works composed of blades Rickey became best known for in the late sixties. The long, tapered blades used as pendulums are a wonder of empirical engineering: light-weight sheet stainless steel is wrapped around a structural core and lead weights are distributed unevenly to slow down the blades individually, a procedure Rickey used to create as much as a tenfold difference of tempo within the same sculpture.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
GEORGE SHERWOOD Tendrils, Gingko Leaf Variation 2007 In George Sherwood’s reflective work, subtle changes not only of wind currents, but of sunlight through the seasons, are recorded within the fluid forms. “A primary focus is on the creation of sculpture which echoes the vitality and gestures distilled from natural phenomena… My sculptures are best viewed over extended periods to appreciate their interaction with the environment.” The perplexing motion of the two arms of Tendrils (Gingko Leaf Variation) reveals a much more complex engineering system than first meets the eye and indeed, the viewer is recompensed for taking time to decipher this ethereal sculpture.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
 |
|
JOHN TYLER Undulations 2008 John Tyler’s Undulations, an abstract tree-like sculpture perfectly at ease in the botanical garden’s Strickland Border, produces a captivating dance of unpredictable action, also presenting near collision of moving elements that challenge logic. It is composed of a boldly curved patinaed mild steel base contrasting the three free-formed hollow stainless steel arms, mounted in sequence and using non-parallel axes of rotation and counter-weighted, compound pendulums. Tyler, a former math teacher who designed and built experimental aircraft and whose studio runs on solar electricity, is an avid surfer. He credits his intimate knowledge of sea currents for his understanding of wind, which obeys similar forces.
YouTube VIDEO LINK
|
|
|
|
|
|
