Monumental Undulating Wave Sculptures by Reuben Margolin

Tuesday, 03 October 2006 22:07

San Francisco, CA - Bay-Area artist Reuben Margolin’s monumental undulating wave sculptures will be on view in the Exploratorium’s Seeing Gallery in a new installation called Math and the Night Sea, on view from October 6, 2006 – February 25, 2007.  The exhibition features two large-scale mechanical mobiles that combine the logic of mathematics with the sensuousness of nature – visually striking installations that undulate in different water-like patterns.

They are made of wood, copper, and aluminum and are driven by complex overhead structures containing electric motors, cams, levers, and hundreds of pulleys.  None of the installations contain digital technology, but instead their fluid motion comes from layering the effects of thousands of mechanical components.  The exhibition is included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium.

The two sculptures on view include The Copper Square Wave, a highly mechanized and imagined landscape that echoes a natural system, but utilizes four motors, five miles of cable, one hundred pulleys, and eighty one points of suspension, all controlled by viewers to undulate in either one or two wave planes.  The other work on view, The Round Wave, is a mesmerizing series of concentric circles reminiscent of the way water drops resonate in water.  This work features three motors, and twenty-five points of suspension.  The dynamic, but quiet, overhead structures give way to the apparent simplicity of the wave below.

These large works are made possible by Margolin’s astonishing mechanical engineering ability, as he manipulates materials to create sinuously moving planes.