Kinetic Art Essay Example

law of gravity and you, the observer can see potential movement, making it a kinetic drawing.This concept also works when you see an art piece that contains an illusion. You know, logically, that the objects on that drawing, painting, photo, etc. Are not physically moving, but your mind applies laws and concepts, that you’ve learned, to the art (unconsciously) and creates movement.

Kinetic art in the form of light is vast with its illusions. Many artists who damper in kinetic art with the use of color and light, love to play with illusion. Light, natural or man made can create movement just by playing with the use of shadows, foreground and background.In an art sculpture you can see a dark colored square closer to you than a light colored square.

However, because the brain is programmed to see light colors closer our minds will try to pull the light colored square forward even though the dark square is technically in front. Now your brain will be arguing against itself, between what is and what it wants. You know the dark square is logically closer, but you want the light square to be in front. This illusion of light with color is a good example of kinetic art.Op art, art with light that flickers, can be a form of kinetic art.

(Kinetic) Strobe lights are a great form of op art. The flickering extreme that strobe lights put off, create the sense of great movement from even the slightest bit. Another example is modern day house decor. There is a shade that covers a light, and to the unaware observer, the light appears to be a candle. This is

only possible due to the flickering of the light. Due to the many examples, it can be clearly stated the movement from the artwork in which to classify it as, kinetic art can be real or imagined.

It is also easy to see how, due to the variety of Kinetic art, it can clearly merge with several other types of art, including performance art, computer generated art, mixed media and installation art, even furniture in your every day house hold. (Kinetic) There are many different pieces of art work that I found but here are a few of my favorites. I’ll start off with the sculpture section; One of the most interesting artists I found, or at least the one with the most interesting pieces, is Ralfonso Gschwend.Ralfonso is a Swiss kinetic sculptor born April 29, 1959. He is a designer of environmentally interactive, kinetic, light, and sound sculptures.

Since 1999 he has specialized in creating large to monumental kinetic sculpture (among other things) for public places from his studios in Florida, USA and Geneva, Switzerland. Ralfonso not only creates kinetic sculptures, but he also co-founded the Kinetic Art Organization in 2001, and has more than 1,000 members from over 60 countries from around the world. Ralfonso sculptures range in size from 2ft to 60ft. nd they have been exhibited or installed in such places as: Switzerland, Netherlands, Russia, China, Germany, United Arab Emirates and here in America.

(Ralfonso Gschwend) My favorites, among his many sculptures include: Opera, Liquid Balance, Dances with the Wind, and Moving on Up. Opera is a motor-driven Sculpture, which rotates slowly around a vertical axis, as lights in the center ring slowly change

color; Water drops fall gently from the top if the inner ring. Also water jumps through the center of each of the rings as the rings turn.The motion and sounds of the water is relaxing as well as the use of light puts off a certain sophisticated aura. This Kinetic water sculpture won first prize and 425,000 dollars on May 5, 2005 in the International Sculpture Competition for the luxury condominium Opera Place Development in W.

Palm Beach, Florida. (Ralfonso: light) Liquid Balance is intended to be a large outdoor Kinetic water sculpture for public places. It is a wind and water driven kinetic sculpture made out of stainless steel and aluminum.Water falls from the top onto oscillating discs that move slowly around a horizontal axis as the water falls from the disc above.

Liquid Balance is always in motion and changes shape constantly due to the unpredictable water distribution. This piece is interesting during any time of day because the motion of the discs creates interesting, moving, light reflections on the surrounding floor. This piece, however, was co-designed by Ralfonso and Todor Todorov. (Ralfonso: water) Dances with the Wind is a kinetic sculpture designed for the outdoors, and it does exactly what its name says; It dances with the wind.Its design includes five segmented rings and balls that create a swaying and undulating ever-changing shape.

As the wind blows against the rings, they tilt away only to be swung back by the weight of the connected ball. The repeated motion of swaying back and forth at different degrees of speed, due to the various sizes of each ring, shows the sculpture “dancing” with the wind in an

elegant swinging motion. The size of this sculpture can range from 6ft to 30ft; larger sizes are obviously possible but require more extreme engineering. Dances with the Wind can be sculpted out of a variety of aterials, but entails a large rate of weight and cost.

The most economical approach includes ABS lightweight, highly durable materials, which are painted with high quality automotive paint. This sculpture caught my attention not only because the innovation and grace put into it but also due to its popularity. There are four of these sculptures at a size of 9ft; they are located in Geneva, Switzerland, Atlanta’s Botanical Garden, Cuadro Gallery in Dubai, and for a private client in California. There is one more location to which this sculpture resides; The Beijing Olympic Park, China.It is called the Olympic Dance with the Wind and it is 30 feet tall including the base. Truly it is an amazing sculpture that has caught some attention.

(Ralfonso: wind sculptures - Dances) The last sculpture I wish to talk about from Ralfonso is called, Moving on Up. Moving on Up is an outdoor wind driven sculpture intended for public places. This sculpture is a little different from the rest only because there is philosophy behind it. “Moving on Up is a monumental sculpture, about the soaring celebration of life, possibility and the desire to explore new boundaries! ” Ralfonso Gschwend.

This piece of artwork swirls as it turns on the rotating platform it sits upon. It not only conveys a sense of dynamic motion, but also of time passing. Due to its constant shifting, the views reflect our constant changing perception of the reality around us.

It can serve many purposes some of which are suggested include; a clock, a sundial, a fountain center piece, or a memorable and impressive landmark. It currently lives in 3 places; at the Art in Motion Exhibition at 15 feet, St. Petersburg, Russia at 15 feet, and in Geneva, Switzerland owned by a private collector also at 15 feet.

Ralfonso: Wind Sculpture- Moving) Bringing things a little more close to home Bruce Gray is another Kinetic Sculptor that I took an interest to. Bruce Gray currently resides in Los Angeles, but was born on 1956 in Orange, New Jersey. Among Kinetic art he also creates found objects sculptures, including a life-size motorcycle sculpture constructed from train parts, and giant objects such as a large aluminum wedge of Swiss cheese and giant high heel shoes. Gray’s work has been displayed at many museums, art galleries, and is part of over 1200 corporate and private art collections. Bruce) He does a variety of sculptures involving furniture, motorized, musical, rolling ball machines, and suspension.

Four out of his vast collection of kinetic artworks that I took an interest to include: California Dreamin, Circumferential Evidence, Suspension, and Pegasus Table. California Dreamin has appeared in advertisements in Fortune Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. It is an 81in high by 50in wide and 32in deep motorized kinetic art ball machine sculpture with two steel balls that get lifted by a drive chain conveyor system, then roll down the elaborate piece in different ways.There are three different tracks that the balls can travel on.

They are changed each time by two switches, or as Bruce Gray likes to call them, “gravity operated, magnetically optimized,

switching units. ” A motorized ball machine such as this one sells for around $15,000 and onward. (California) The Circumferential Evidence sculpture is a modern day sculpture made out of welded steel with an aluminum circle encompassing it connected to a bar that goes up and around and balances on the top of the base sculpture.It can come in a variety of colors; Finished this sculpture sells for $7000 and up. This sculpture has appeared as part of a show in the series, “Charmed”.

(Circumferential) The Suspension kinetic sculpture intrigued me because of its use of magnets. Its dimensions are 40in tall by 39in wide by 16in deep. The sculpture is a ring with five magnets connected to one side of the ring while their opposite polar magnets are on the other side of the frame of the circle, intended to hold the magnets in place by magnetic force alone.The high powered industrial rare earth neodymium iron boron magnets are on the ends of each cord. Neodymium iron Boron is alloys of the Lanthanide group of elements; rare earth magnets are the most advanced commercialized permanent magnet materials today.

These magnets are brittle and machining operations are used prior to magnetization, using diamond tools. The 40in tall sculpture is valued at $7000, and has been seen on FOX channel 11 News, and TV shows “Charmed,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and in the film “Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me”. Suspension) The Pegasus Table is a very different kind of kinetic art. The Pegasus table is a table constructed in steel, wire, and plastic. It’s a table in the shape of a horse and it has hanging

square tubes which are in fact musical chimes, hanging off the neck.

The chimes can be played by swinging them from side to side, or with the two hidden mallets which are the two balls you can see at the left end of the head that don’t support a hanging tube. This piece was featured in a show called “Sound Furniture” at the Gallery of Functional Art in Santa Monica.It was also part of an elaborate musical performance. The table is sold at $6000 and more.

It is best seen and heard in person to truly appreciate the magnitude of this one of kind piece of Kinetic art. (Pegasus) In conclusion Kinetic Art is the art of motion. Kinetic art contains a/or several moving parts, and depends on motion (real of imaginary) for its effect. Kinetic energy is energy that comes from motion. If someone stated that there was kinetic energy coming from and object, it would mean that the object was in motion.Coming to the conclusion that Kinetic art means motion art.

This does not mean that the artwork has to be physically moving all the time. It can be a continuous motion or have the potential to move. The motion of the art piece can be provided in virtually any way. It can be real or imaginary, man motivated (electricity, steam, clockwork, cranking a handle, pushing) or naturally powered from wind, water, or gravity (among others), as well as an illusion from lines, colors, or light.Kinetic art can come in many forms including: sculptures free hanging or grounded; drawings (3D) and photography, when you’re observe the potential of movement through gravity (Your mind creates movement, consciously

or unconsciously, due to your knowledge of basic physics and the concept of gravity.

This concept also comes into play when you’re dealing with illusions) furniture, and light. It is easy to see how, due to the variety, Kinetic art can also merge into other forms of art such as performance art, computer generated art, mixed media and installation art.The main thing to grasp about Kinetic art, is that, it is any form of art that is moving, has the potential to move, or has the illusion of movement. Therefore, if you, the observer views art that appears to be moving then it is a form of kinetic art. The two artists that I recommend viewing more about are: Ralfonso Gschwend, born on April 29, 1959 in Switzerland created many sculptures, four of which I was most fascinated with include: Opera and Liquid Balance, two innovative water ieces; Dances with the Wind and Moving on Up, two inspiring wind powered sculptures. Also Bruce Gray who brought us the pieces: California Dreamin, a mechanized ball rolling art piece; Circumferential Evidence, a modern balancing act; Suspension, a new form of use with magnets; and the Pegasus Table, furniture yet music.

Each artist has something new, and something different compared to each other. They bring new thought and ideas to the world, as well as beauty and inspiration. Everyday new art is born and two of its creators now reside in this great country.There is and always will be an ever growing amount of gargantuan forms of Kinetic art that I can not even fathom to have included.