Pieces of OHM
“Pieces” was commissioned in the spring of 2021 for a condo at Eastman in Grantham, NH. The owners wanted something to activate the space and that spoke to their interests, cycling and music. It would be seen from two levels, the living room below, and the balcony above. It was important not to block the view and as a mobile, it was important that it be light enough to move. Also, it had to be mostly wood, both for esthetic preference and to keep it light.
After experimenting with various musical and bicycle forms, they presented to me a graphic of OHM which speaks to their interest in meditation. This became the basis for the forms I developed. The wheel they hang from ties back to cycling and forward to Buddhist “wheel of life”
Musical forms were a natural starting place but they proved to be too cumbersome and too specific
I considered making a physical model of the space but concluded 3D studio would be more practical
Chaos is always a good place to start
I ditched the idea of hanging forms from a bow
stainless steel wire spokes and wood in tension
Sanskrit for OHM
This graphic became the basis for the forms I developed
Once I had a desigh in 3D studio, the next step was to make an actual model to see if it would work. I soldered wire for this. It still hangs in my studio. The process of construction kept me guessing if it would work until the very end.
Alan Watts wrote a book called “The Wisdom of Insecurity”. He says uncertainty is good. Sometimes I find it unnerving.
I did become wise in the ways of making wheels, soldering stainless steel rod, bending wood forms without steam and taking the next step. Often the next step is the only you may be lucky enough to see.
I knew all along I would have to laminate forms
The wheel is 5' across I laid out the circle with a string and cut sections on a band saw and hot glued them to the floor
I had hoped that cabling the wheel would stabilize it. Not so. It sagged and wobbled like an old woman
the answer was stainless steel rods that I swaged with copper crimps
cabling and rods work together to make it stable
I scaled and printed drawings from my 3DS model, then draped them over bend wire mesh. This way I got the compound curves that make up the forms.
The wood is specially treated to be flexible while wet. once dry it holds its form
I glued sections together with epoxy and 20 ga nails
The small gold pieces are gold leaf applied to aluminum
originally, I planned to use lead to balance everything.
I added another octagonal structure of steel rod that allowed more flexibility to position and balance the forms without weights
installation involved setting up staging. 16' is too high to do it off a ladder
me and my staging
it's all hung with fishing line and tiny hooks and swivels
