Historical Sculptures

Serenade • Kinetic Motion and Music

 

David recently received a request from a collector for Serenade, a design of his from 2000 that sold out. After a little soul searching he decided it was time for him to part with the original master but he did create a new video of it before shipping it off.  

In making his editions he first creates a master and for years he kept every master. This practice started back in the early days of Wood That Works. He designed and built the first three sculptures, went to a craft fair and sold them all in the first twenty minutes, came home and had to figure out how to do it all over again. Since then he has created masters to refer to throughout the construction of the rest of the edition.

Serenade was the second kinetic sculpture David created using the tuned chimes of percussionist Garry Kivistad of Woodstock Percusion. It has the "Chimes of Java" incorporated into a sculpture designed to ring them softly and randomly.

Serenade master is now happily on display along with several other kinetic sculptures in a west coast collection. That is a much better pace for it than in the storage box at the top of our garage!

 

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Juggling - Another form of Kinetic Sculpture

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I love the connections that are made in today's digital world. People from all over the world can see David's work and communicate with us about it and how it relates to their experiences. David recently received this email:

"I have been a fan of your work for many years. My main passion in life is juggling - yes, really - and this video reminded me of your sculptures:

Cordially,  Jerry

I followed the link and sure enough, David and I too saw the connections. Do you?


Center

Which of David's sculptures are you reminded of? I see a little of:


  • Pursuit and Tumbler  (1982)
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Thanks Jerry M. for taking the time to write and share the video. What fun!

 

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Color • Motion and Design by Julien Vallée

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The striking color and the motion of the composition in this sculpture caught my eye and led to exploring (and wasting a chunk of time - rationalized as collecting inspiration) the fascinating work of Canadian graphic design Julien Vallée at his Motion and Design website.

I don't use color in my work - or at least not very frequently. I find that motion and pattern are two very strong elements and adding a third complicates the design.  I like the viewer to be able to interpret their own colors from the given elements.  

I do encourage others whom possess an understanding of color theory and mechanics to explore that realm of kinetic art.  As I have regularly said, too many ideas and not enough time!

Here is a photo of the last piece I created with color accents. Called Seascape, it was on display in our home for this photo but is now part of the incredible craft collection at the headquarters of Dansko in West Grove, PA. See earlier blog about Seascape here.

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Slightly Windy • Gentle Kinetic Motion

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Did you have a collection of music boxes stashed in your junk drawer as a kid?  I did.  I was fascinated by the motion. This kinetic sculpture is the fusion of that classic mechanism with a new twist. It is created by combining a fine music box mechanism with golden barley shafts. 

It was designed by José Ferrufino at Écal University of Art and Design Lausanne. The mechanism is a 144 blade music box crafted by the Reuge of Switzerland. 

The mechanism drives a series of cams that start the grasses gently swaying in the breeze.

The presentation is that of a fine piece of jewelry transformed into sculpture with additional sensory inputs of both sound and motion. I'd love to see it in person.  

I haven't been able to locate a video showing the motion alone or in combination with the music box.  The above photo attempts to show motion, but David learned that it isn't enough.  In the early years of Wood That Works we did many experiments with still photography to try and demonstrate the motion of David's work (discussed in an earlier blog post here).  This photo of Serendipity from the late 1970s is one of the best.  It does make the sculpture appear to be moving at a frenetic pace and it didn't.

The development of home videography, flash animation, and YouTube has changed all of that!

If any one does know of a video of José Ferrufino's
sculpture, note it in the comments and I'll provide a link.

 

via/Thersic.com

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Simple Harmonic Motion - Fascinating to watch

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Here is a YouTube Video that could be the basis of an inspiring idea - or maybe it already was! Be patient and watch through the variations.

via Kottke.org

 

There is an informative site about this working model here.

I found a similar construction on YouTube but the video is taken from an different angle.  Still fascinating to watch.

David used the concept of viewing balls moving in three-dimensional space to create wave patterns in a kinetic sculpture piece back in 1990. The wave patterns emerged when you viewed it from one fixed spot. Symphony is from well before we had a website or video. We do have a still photograph so you'll have to use your imagination!

Symphony by David 1990