Rainbow Arbor - Skirball Museum and Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA - 2008

A 100’ long by 12’ tall curved, tilted wall made of perforated stainless steel with mist sprayers along the top edge. The billowing mist serves to dematerialize the edge of the artwork while providing a cooling environment for people walking along the path. The arc is fabricated out of perforated stainless steel that has been painted carbon black. The top edge of the arc is lined with hundreds of mist sprayers that release a curtain of tiny water drops that visually blur the edge of the sculpture. When hit by direct sunlight, the mist refracts into a series of intense rainbows. As the mist billows from the top of the artwork it streams and sways in response to the wind like the spray from the top of a large breaking wave on the ocean. The interaction of the mist and the perforated metal background creates some interesting visual illusions. People walking behind the wall instead appear to be walking in front of it but enshrouded in mist. The artwork and surrounding landscape design evolved through a collaboration with Moshe Safdie.

View Additional Photos

 

 

Cloud Rings - 21-C Museum, Louisville, KY. 2006

A series of devices set into a sunken courtyard that continuously shoot rings of fog up into the space between two buildings. The billowing rings are seen from the street as well as from the windows of the surrounding buildings. Installed in 2006.

View Larger Photos

 

 

Duales Systems Pavilion - EXPO 2000, Hannover, Germany. 2000

A collaboration with the architect, Uwe Bruckner, on the design of a building that created a 7-story tall tornado. The pavilion was sponsored by the German recycling company, Duales Systems. The circular shape of the building and air turbines integrated into the spiral ramps and ceiling were designed to sculpt the air in the central atrium into a 75-foot (23 meters) tall vortex. The vortex was made visible by fog pumped through the floor and illuminated by a combination of natural light and electronically controlled lights that slowly cycled through various colors. The membrane of the building opened and closed every ten minutes, causing the ambient light levels to slowly rise and fall. The circular forms of the architecture, the swirling vortex and the rhythmic lightening and darkening of the space, all related to the underlying design theme of "cycles". Visitors to the pavilion also walked in a cyclical path, slowly ascending a spiral ramp that offered close viewing of the vortex from many different heights and vantage points and then descending a spiral staircase. Completed in May 2000.

View Larger Photos

 

 

Infalling Cloud- Rose Center for Earth and Space, Americam Museum of Natural History, New York, New York. 2000

Dense fog swirls down into a large funnel-shaped chamber set into the floor of the new planetarium and forms a vortex suggestive of a spiral galaxy. Light streaming up through the center reveals the complex inner structures of the everchanging vortex. The artwork creates the impression of gases being drawn into a black hole.

View Larger Photos

 

 

Breathing Sky - Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA. 1995

Dense mist billowing from a 20-foot diameter ring of stones reveals the complex patterns of the wind in the sculpture Ácourt. The appearance of the fog changed from minute to minute responding to the air currents and ambient light conditions. Completed in September 1995.

View Larger Photos

 

 

Tornado - World Financial Center, Battery Park City, New York, New York. 1990

A 10-foot tall vortex is formed by air blowers and an ultrasonic fog machine inside a sculpture installed in the atrium adjacent to the Winter Garden. The vortex continually changed shape in response to the surrounding air currents.These fluctuations gave the vortex an erratic and life-like appearance. Viewers were encouraged to alter the shape of the vortex with their hands. The calm, central core of the vortex is clearly evident.

View Larger Photos

 

 

Invisible Whirlwinds - New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California. 1987

A 12-foot tall fog tornado was created using fans, curved walls and the existing ventilation system in the gallery. The movements of viewers altered the air currents and modified the shape of the vortex.