Sculpture by the Sea 2010 (SxS10)
My entry into SxS10 titled SEAD was inspired by this quote from John F Kennedy.
"I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came."
President John F. Kennedy. Newport, Rhode Island. September 14, 1962. Remarks at the America Cup Dinner hosted by the Australian Ambassador.
This is a little background on the process of making "SEAD".
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| The first step was to create a sketch of the proposed work for consideration by the selection panel of Sculpture by the Sea. I created a 3D concept sketch using Sketchup. |
) | After the design was accepted a detailed construction model was created in Sketchup. |
) | The glass was recycled from an office strip out. It had to be collected from the 12th floor of a City building and at 75 kg a sheet and only just able to fit into the lift it wasn't easy. The glass was covered in privacy film which had to be scraped off and then the glass was cleaned. |
) | The majority of the plywood was CNC cut in my studio. Matt Dickman from Art Projects Support did the table saw cutting and provided invaluable assistance with advice on construction methods. Matt's committment to precision and practicality were an inspiration to me. |
) | I had to design a few pieces of equipment to support the glass whilst the piece was constructed. |
) | Here is the glass fitted into the base and supported by the temporary end cap. |
) | Whilst the silicone set the plywood body slices were supported by wire with small screw eyes attached to the end. Once the silicon was cured the wire was removed by twisting the wire which unscrewed the screw eyes. |
) | Once the glass was fitted the permanent endcaps were laminated together. |
) | The finished endcaps are ready to be fitted. |
) | The endcaps are fitted. The blue steel subframe that takes the weight when the sculpture is lifted can be seen under the plywood top. |
) | A final inspection from the Engineer confirms that the finished Sculpture is structurally sound and sdafe to exhibit. |
) | SEAD on temporary display at a WASAD gallery. |
) | Loaded and on the way to Sculpture by the Sea. |
) | Finaly delivered and installed safe and sound. |