Study for a large format sculpture (tensegrity)
I have thought about this project for a better part of 17 years. Then, it was a competition entry which won an Honorable Mention at the international student competition An Architectural Fantasy in 3D in 1994. At the time I considered it a folly, akin to the ones that had been showcased by Bernard Tschumi at the Park de La Villette, and approached it with an inordinate amount of folly. It then receded from my attention for a good while; but not from memory.
Stairway to Heaven; competition entry - Hon. Mention, 1993
My sculptural work has been reinvigorated recently as I have more or less acquired the skills to pull it off full scale. The miniature studies concealed an ambition to build large, somewhere in the range of 3 to 4.20 meters. I am also finding the new title a lot more coherent to the way it came about as well.
The piece is a tensegrity installation where stiff subassemblies are rigged in a web of steel rope. The ladders do not touch one another. The allusion with a kids climb-up equipment is obvious, as is the attempt to reach for something intangible, higher up. That climber upper will require more skill and daring to use.
To be executed in stainless steel or bronze tubing with stainless steel cable.