9/25/2023 0 Comments Earthtime 1.26![]() ![]() ![]() I was staying in a South Indian fishing village, and each afternoon I walked the long beach, watching the fishermen bundling their nets into mounds on the sand. I was in a terrible bind, with no materials to make my art. The deadline for the shows arrived – but my paints did not. Promising to give painting exhibitions around the country on behalf of the US Embassy, I shipped my special paints and equipment to create the new paintings. SCALE: When did you begin this new form of art with nets and technology? How do you keep reinventing?Įchelman: I started out as a young painter when I travelled on a Fulbright Scholarship to India. Soaring 600 feet through the air above street traffic and pedestrian park in Boston and spanned the void where an elevated highway once split downtown from its waterfront. All of our work is engineered to fully satisfy all local building code – and sometimes that means withstanding winds up to 150+mph. It’s resistant to high temperatures, pollution, and even chemical reactions – all while retaining its full strength. For example, my Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene fibre is 15 times stronger than steel by weight and is the same material NASA used to tether the Mars Rover. We also use a variety of highly-engineered fibres. Its strength is gained through resiliency, not brute force. They’re soft and flexible, able to let hurricane-strength winds pass through their soft mesh structure. That said, in creating work to be installed in climates with the potential for extreme weather conditions including high winds, I’ve found that forms that are able to fluidly and gracefully adapt to changing circumstances are the most successful. SCALE: How challenging is it to work with nets especially on the seaside with winds constantly proving to be a hindrance?Įchelman: Ephemeral materials like wind, water, and sunlight draw me in, so the patterns and direction of wind create choreography for my sculpture, whose soft surfaces undulate in ever-changing patterns. The earth’s day was shortened by 1.26 microseconds as a result of this physical event so titles within the Earthtime series sometimes refer to that numerical measurement of time. Its form is a manifestation of interconnectedness – when any one element in the sculpture moves, every other element is affected. We measured the change in wave heights of the ocean’s surface as they rippled across the entire Pacific Ocean following an earthquake that originated in Chile in 2010. My studio modelled the physical form for Earthtime 1.26 using a scientific data set about how a single geologic occurrence in one part of the world had ripple effects all over the world. They explore the contrast between the forces we can understand and control with those we cannot, and the concerns of our daily existence within the larger cycles of time. SCALE: Why are the installations called Earthtime 1.26?Įchleman: My Earthtime sculptures seek to heighten our awareness about the way we are all interconnected with one another and our physical world. The old net of the Porto installation has recently been been changed for a new one. Her work is not merely using a fisherman’s net but a scientific approach to finding the best material that makes the net-like material more strong to weather the climate yet maintain the fluidity of the same fisherman acessory. It was then that I discovered their soft surfaces revealed every ripple of wind is constantly changing patterns and I was mesmerised,” she says. I brought them to the beach and lifted them into the air to photograph them. “My first satisfying sculptures were hand-crafted in collaboration with those fishermen. ![]() Walking through the beaches in a fishing village in South India, watching fishermen bind the net and then hurl it to the sea, Echelman was mystified and entranced by this new material. ![]() What is even more fascinating is how Echelman began her craft with nets. It is an experience that transforms with wind and light, and becomes an experience you can get lost in. Janet Echelman creates strong wire mesh-like curtains that move with the wind creating monumental sculptures over streetscapes.Ī thin net-like mirage over the cityscape in a beautiful burst of colours is the initial perception of Janet Echelman’s sculpture but soon we realise that the mirage is much more. ![]()
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