Let the Sculptures Move
2008-08-12

Let the Sculptures Move

                                                                   ---General Information about Kinetic Sculpture

What if a sculpture can move? A sculpture powered by wind, a motor or the observer must be amazing. And thanks to all those creative and imaginative sculptors, this truly happened. Nowadays there are lots of kinetic sculptures. 
Alexander Calder, "Red Mobile", 1956. Painted sheet metal and metal rods, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

¡óBackground
Kinetic sculpture was an international phenomenon, though its roots were primarily European. The term "kinetic sculpture" does not indicate any specific style.

The first example of kinetic sculpture is credited to Marcel Duchamp, with his Bicycle Wheel produced in 1913. In the 1920s the Eastern European artists Naum Gabo and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy began to experiment with kinetic sculpture that resembled machines. Shortly thereafter the American Alexander Calder invented the mobile, consisting of a delicately balanced wire armature from which sculptural elements are suspended.

The 1950s and 1960s are seen as a golden age of kinetic sculpture, during which time Alexander Calder (inventor of the mobile) and George Rickey pioneered kinetic sculpture. Other leading exponents include Yaacov Agam, Fletcher Benton, Eduard Bersudsky, Marcel Duchamp, Arthur Ganson, Starr Kempf, Jerome Kirk, Len Lye, Ronald Mallory, Jean Tinguely, and the Zero group.

¡óTechniques and Styles
Kinetic sculptures are simply breathtaking. Drawing green engineering and art together, they give a glimpse at what great beauty can emerge from an unconstrained mind. Kinetic art encompasses a wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles.

Kinetic sculptures are examples of kinetic art in the form of sculpture or three dimensions. In common with other types of kinetic art, kinetic sculptures have parts that move or that are in motion. Sound sculpture can also, in some cases, be considered kinetic sculpture. The motion of the work can be provided in many ways: mechanically through electricity, steam or clockwork; by utilising natural phenomena such as wind or wave power; or by relying on the spectator to provide the motion, by doing something such as cranking a handle.

And Mobiles are a type of kinetic sculpture. Some kinetic sculptures are wind-powered as are those of Theo Jansen, and others are motor driven. A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. It consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang. A popular creator of mobile sculptures was Alexander Calder.

Metamechanics also has a specific meaning in relation to art history, as a description of the kinetic sculpture machines of Jean Tinguely. It is also applied to, and may have its origins in, earlier work of the Dada art movement.

¡óAppreciation

Kinetic Sculptures, Theo Jansen

This art, which is named "Kinetic Sculptures", consists of pieces which possess mobile parts, usually impulse by wind or by the hand of the observer. The origens of this movement date from 1920, having as pioneers the russians Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner.

Its maker, Theo Jansen, is an engineer, artist who pretends to study the progress of mobility and sculpting of the air which surrounds us and giving it life, dimension and form, surpassing the frontiers of what we know and feel. He plays with ideas of art and motion, but in a radically different way. Watching his kinetic sculptures from a distance they seem more than lifelike: they appear positively alive. Rather than stop at a single sculpture, Jansen tests the abilities of each of his creations and then "breeds" the best survivors into each new generation. 


the "Kinetic Sculpture" in the House of Design,the BMW Museum

Ready to have your gray matter softly stroked? Perhaps you should take a trip to BMW's recently opened museum in Munich, where a kinetic sculpture comprising 714 metallic balls suspended in air will soothe your weary mind. It's one of those things that's better seen than described, but if you can imagine a wave of undulating orbs that appear to weightlessly float, you'll start to get the idea. Seemingly weightless and guided solely by the power of the mind, the sculpture moves through a cycle of free abstractions and typical BMW vehicle forms.