Kinetic art
We define kinetic art as sculpture that moves or appears to move. The most recognized kinetic artist is Alexander Calder. The Ordovas Gallery in London put on a special show, in 2012, of his work, titled “Calder in India”. Calder spent three weeks in India in 1955 and created works there, which the gallery spent ten years finding, so they could put together the show.
They arranged nine of Calder’s works for the show. The first picture shows the gallery with two mobiles hanging from the ceiling and two stabiles standing on the floor. Pilar Ordovas, the gallery owner, explained to an interviewer from 200 %, an art blog, that the Calder pieces transform the gallery and bring her joy every morning upon entering. The second picture from that show is of a mobile with cut outs in some elements and a particularly interesting “tail” with a deep blue dot.
Calder made some hanging mobiles of a very large size. In the United States there is an impressive very large Calder mobile inside the I. M. Pei designed wing of the National Art Gallery in Washington D.C. Due to its large size ‒ some of the paddles are taller than a man ‒ it moves slowly and ominously. It is the elephant of mobiles.
Not all kinetic art is inside a museum. Please look at the picture of an outdoor kinetic sculpture in an ordinary public space in Bronxville, NY. The background makes it difficult to see that there are two booms, each with an open circle at one end and a paddle at the other end. Being outdoors, the paddles catch the breeze. Notice the two booms are attached to a cross bar which in turn is attached to a pole.
Each attachment is made with low friction bearings so that even a slight breeze will make the cross brace and booms rotate in a horizontal plane. At the same time the two nicely balanced booms move up and down vertically and independently. One can even be moving up while the other is moving down.
The movement is graceful and unpredictable. The hesitation and reversal of direction is particularly nice to watch. As happens in an environment not dedicated to art many people just pass by.
How do you feel about public art? Maybe it should be tested ahead of time to see how people will respond or better yet scheduled explanations could be given to the public perhaps in conjunction with an art fair. This permanent kinetic artwork in Bronxville has no title or artist designation on it.
