07 June 2009

Coffee Stir Stick Madness



Art Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC

I like reading Jonathon Brilliant's blog about creating an art sculpture and then going to see it in person. I had visited his giant water bottle at the North Charleston waterfront park and this morning I tracked down the amazing stir stick creation and walked around it grinning and scratching my head.

70,000 wooden coffee stirrers were woven in place and held by tension. The form was created during a ten day site specific building session. The piece became the most lyrical and playful of the stir stick installations to date and gives an indication of the direction the installations will be taking in future versions.

I like his description here:

...in many ways it has become a lot like a torqued basket fed through some sort of photoshop filter. I like to think when i am working that it is a bit like a labor intensive version of the cloning tool inside the photoshop interface.

2 comments:

Doug said...

I wonder if the shape is a result of random fitment of the sticks, or if there was any idea at all how it would look. It's a triumph in engineering as well as art.

Charlestonjoan said...

I think some of both. He started out and then let the shape guide him. It is huge!