Billowing Beauty

By Denis Bouvier

World–renowned artist Janet Echelman has coloured Vancouver’s waterfront with a billowing beauty. This incredible net sculpture that spans 745 feet is suspended between the rooftops of the Fairmount Waterfront Hotel and the Vancouver Convention Centre. It is her largest and most technically ambitious installation to date.

It is made from Honeywell Spectra fibre, a lightweight material 15 times stronger than steel by weight. This allows it to respond to the wind without danger of tearing and temporarily attach to existing architecture without a lot of heavy hardware. It is illuminated at night and spectators are able to choreograph the lighting with their mobile devices.

Autodesk, a leader in 3D design software, helped not only develop the interactive light display, but was able to model the sculpture and test its feasibility. The beautiful effect of Echelman’s net sculpture is an achievement which employs a team of aeronautical and mechanical engineers, architects, lighting designers, landscape architects and fabricators. To help finance the project, Burrard Arts Foundation raised more than $25,000 through Kickstarter.

Echelman became inspired after living in Bali for five years where she explored combining traditional textile methods with contemporary painting. On a Fulbright scholarship year in India, she collaborated with fisherman to create netted sculptures. Since 2005, Echelman has installed net sculptures in major cities of the U.S., Europe and Australia.

“I create soft, billowing sculptures that act as a counterpoint to hard edge cities and buildings, and in doing so my aim is to create oases of art in urban centers around the world,” she says.

Skies Painted With Unnumbered Sparks is on display until March 22. It coincides with the 30th annual TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Speakers include luminaries from various disciplines. To mention a few: Isabel Allende, Bill Gates, Chris Hadfield, Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web), Sting. In 2011, Janet Echelman gave a TED Talk entitled Taking imagination seriously, where she explained the development of her current art form. You can view a film of this talk at: http://www.ted.com/talks/janet_echelman?language=en

Link to this article: https://thelasource.com/en/?p=8728

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Billowing Beauty

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