Currently on view on the roof of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin, ‘Picnic‘ is a new functional sculpture by arist Michael Beitz (previously here and here). The roller coaster meets picnic table is made out of plywood and took the artist nearly a year to build using a special jig the artist says was reminiscent of a medieval torture device.
Cyclique was an aerial light and sound installation created by audiovisual artist Nohista and Collectif Coin for Nuit Blanche 2013
The array of 256 large white balloons was embedded with LEDs that blinked in sequence with various audio tracks and was further enhanced by the impact of wind which altered the layout and motion of the piece
The below video is of the work:
Cliff Garten has completed, Ribbons, a landscape sculpture commissioned by the Art in Architecture Program of the General Services Administration of the Federal Government, located at 50 United Nations Plaza in San Francisco.Ribbons responds to the hierarchy of the Beaux-Arts architecture by countering with a horizontal sculpture comprised of a central motif of concrete paving ribbons set into a larger pervious surface of decomposed granite. Elegant cast concrete benches rise, twist and fall back into these paving ribbons, creating a rhythmically punctuated circulation system that incorporates seating throughout the courtyard.
The artist Tadashi Kawamata stayes in Paris and takes his place in Paris .He made 5 wooden nests within for the FIAC . Only problem, the place Vendôme is in works. It is thus difficult to appreciate his work in these conditions.
What is this week’s Spotlight Artist working on currently?
Janet Echelman is famous for her soft “net” sculptures that are amorphous in shape and billow gently in the wind. However, this time Echelman is experimenting with an entirely different medium for her project in the historic Dilworth Plaza, otherwise known as the Philadelphia City Hall.
This plaza was once the city’s center of water works and later expanded into a hub for the Pennsylvania Railroad utilizing the technology of steam powered locomotives. Because of this rich history, her inspiration was clear: transportation, water, and steam. Integrating her artwork with the history of the space seamlessly, Echelman’s piecewill be embedded in the plaza’s fountain where 4 foot tall curtains of mist will trace the path of the below subway lines in real time. The falling mist will glow and change color when illuminated at night.
Echelman will once again astound the average passerby with her collaborative artwork that responds to the surrounding environment in a dynamic way.
Artist’s Story
(taken from her website, http://www.echelman.com)
Amsterdam project, suspended over the Amstel River
American artist Janet Echelman reshapes urban airspace with monumental, fluidly moving sculpture that responds to environmental forces including wind, water, and sunlight.
Echelman first set out to be an artist after graduating college. She moved to Hong Kong in 1987 to study Chinese calligraphy and brush-painting. Later she moved to Bali, Indonesia, where she collaborated with artisans to combine traditional textile methods with contemporary painting.
When she lost her bamboo house in Bali to a fire, Echelman returned to the United States and began teaching at Harvard. After seven years as an Artist-in-Residence, she returned to Asia, embarking on a Fulbright lectureship in India.
With the promise to give painting exhibitions around the country, she shipped her paints to Mahabalipuram, a fishing village famous for sculpture. When her paints never arrived, Echelman, inspired by the local materials and culture, began working with bronze casters in the village.
She soon found the material too heavy and expensive for her Fulbright budget. While watching local fishermen bundling their nets one evening, Echelman began wondering if nets could be a new approach to sculpture: a way to create volumetric form without heavy, solid materials.
By the end of her Fulbright year, Echelman had created a series of netted sculpture in collaboration with the fishermen. Hoisting them onto poles, she discovered that their delicate surfaces revealed every ripple of wind.
Today Echelman has constructed net sculpture environments in metropolitan cities around the world. She sees public art as a team sport and collaborates with a range of professionals including aeronautical and mechanical engineers, architects, lighting designers, landscape architects, and fabricators.
She built her studio beside her hundred-year-old house, where she lives with her husband David Feldman and their two children.
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Check out her TED talk here. More to come about her upcoming project in Philadelphia!
“Her Secret is Patience” in the Phoenix Civic Space
Public Artwork 