Amazing Kinetic Sculptures That Could Hypnotize You

By Jay Boi on August 20, 2014 No Comments / 5076 views

A Review of Anthony Howe’s Outdoor Kinetic Sculptures. When Anthony Howe imagines his next masterpiece, he thinks about it in terms of shape, as other artists do. But his creative mind also works with an unexpected factor that absolutely makes the difference: the idea of movement. From the most subtle to the most obvious way, everything around us is involved in processes that bring change and dynamic patterns. Why shouldn’t sculptures have a little of that lively touch? In designing his bold creatures over the past 25 years, Howe seems to have sensed how essential movement is for our visual experience. In fact, his sculptures attract our senses in a powerful way as soon as we lay eyes on them.

Amazing Kinetic Sculptures

The Challenge of Playing with Nature Movement makes sense of these structures; their designs can´t be perceived completely if we only look at them as scenes caught in photographs. Rather, we should view them as live performances. And while each sculpture has a major role in this unusual play, the surroundings also play a part. The sculptures work as icons that drive the attention to themselves in outdoor spaces, making those spaces distinctive. Circular movements strongly emphasize the natural world around them and connect the sculptures with each other. For that reason, these sculptures work everywhere in their unique and authentic way. Instead of copying the environment or being camouflaged, they are influenced by the landscape, without denying the artificial world they come from and the process that created them. WATCH: Findle

Meet the Kinetic Sculptures That Can’t Be Quiet

Howe´s sculptures look like a family of awesome creatures, each with its own strength and its own way of affecting its surroundings. There are lots of interesting optical effects, such as using two different rotating speeds in the same structure. That is the case for KweeBe, which could remind us how microorganisms move in liquid substances. Watch: KweeBe in action The popular series of sculptures called Octo are also absolutely surprising. If you are in front of them, they will show you the horizon through a dynamic hole that appears and disappears constantly. However, if you take a lateral position, they will turn into beautiful jellyfishes swimming on the air. WATCH: Octo 3 Other sculptures highly enlarge the perception of movement by the lighting effects, as the energizing Spines does. Its reflective stainless steel triangles rotate and light the surroundings in its crazy dance. There are a special group of sculptures showing a different pattern: They are formed by mobile panels creating the illusion of fragmented surfaces. WATCH: Spine Tower Related Articles:

My Father´s Influence is a really good representative of them. The mirrored panels reflect everything around, keeping each image just for a few seconds, and compounding an always dynamic whole vision made of changing points of view. WATCH: My Father’s Influence The Making of the Kinetic Effect Howe uses strong support from CAD software and less high-tech systems during the assembly process, which can last only 30 minutes. But how does he make the difficult so apparently easy? We can find some common keys in his strategies: Using light and resistant materials, such as fibreglass or steel, to take advantage even of the lightest breezes is a great point, but sometimes he needs to add a gear motor, too. In general, each sculpture is formed by two ranges of pieces working together. There is a stainless steel skeleton that includes mobile axles to create every single movement, and a group of pieces to catch wind through their curved, wider surfaces. Very often, this gives us the impression of floating in the air by themselves, like Ring Around does. WATCH: About Face There is a lot of Anthony Howe in these giant wind toys that seem to swim, dance, or breathe in their own beautiful way. They take the space around them and give it back to us connected with underwater worlds, faraway universes, and our powerful imaginations. Recommended Reading: