Shadow Machine

New York

IN SHORT

This kinetic sculpture was commissioned by a private client in Switzerland to coincide with The Museum of Modern Art's solo exhibition of Calatrava's work in the autumn of 1992. The idea for the sculpture originated in 1988 as a project for the Swissbau Concrete Pavilion in Basel. Here, Calatrava took the experiment a step further. Twelve slender 'fingers' made of molded pre-cast concrete, each eight-meter long and weighs 600 kilograms were mounted on a rear support panel. Naturally tinted through the use of white sand in the aggregate, the concrete elements were supported from a base weighing thirty tons, which was lifted as one piece over the wall of the museum's Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. A socket cast into each finger engaged a ball, which was set into the end of the protruding supports.

YEAR

1992 - 1993

ADDRESS

The Museum of Modern Art
11 W 53rd St
New York, NY 10019
United States