Artist Talk

I went to Arthur Gansen’s artist talk on his sculptural machines on December 5, 2019. During the artist talk, Gansen showed us a lot of his work, and the progression of his work developing over the years. He explained that ever since he was a kid, he was always interested in the way things moved, which continued onto his adult years as he kept making these beautiful moving sculptures. 

I liked a lot of his sculptures, and I was particularly drawn to the one where it looks like this one tiny wishbone is slowly carrying the large complicated machine behind it. It really made me think about what was powering what and how it was actually moving. There were wheels on the bottom but I didn’t see any motors or anything attached to it. It made me think that the whole thing needed both the giant machine in the back and the tiny wishbone in the front to move forward properly

I was also interested in his sculpture where the chair exploded, went to the depths of space, and came back together in the center for a split second before flying off again. The way he described it and first came up with the idea was so interesting, like he was just sitting there and it just came to him. I think it’s even more impressive that he went through with his idea and made multiple iterations of this same idea to improve on it to make it better. 

I found this artist talk to be particularly inspiring because of the creative and playful ways he plays with machines and motion. I typically think of machines as big, heavy, clunky, loud things, but he presented them as light and delicate with a sense of humor and playfulness. It made me think and want to make and play with wire to see what kind of motion I can create with them.