Art

caption: "EXOCENTRIC SPIRITS": Ralf Gschwend's work is part of "MomentuM: Selections from the Kinetic Art Organization" on view at Grounds for Sculpture through the summer.

(Photo by Marc Pollock) caption: "ANNULAR ECLIPSE — WALL VARIATION III": This piece is among the work by George Rickey currently featured in an exhibition of the late artist's work at Grounds for Sculpture. "We are thrilled to have a pioneer of kinetic sculpture, George Rickey, exhibited in the Museum Building, while at the same time a new generation of kinetic artists are featured in the Domestic Arts Building," commented GFS Director/Curator Brooke Barrie.

To See The Wind: Kinetic Art at Grounds For Sculpture

Linda Arntzenius

If you live in the Princeton area and haven't yet found the path to Grounds For Sculpture (GFS), now would be a good time to go. The sculpture park held an opening reception earlier this month (May 13) that showcased nine sculptures added to its outdoor collection and two new indoor exhibitions of kinetic art that will continue through the summer.

As with many of the large-scale outdoor sculptures, the indoor exhibitions elicit smiles from even the most recalcitrant visitor. Kinetic sculpture, in particular, seems designed to engage viewers and draw them into feel-good interactions. "MomentuM: Selections from the Kinetic Art Organization," in the Domestic Arts Building, offers a number of opportunities for memorable encounters.

Take for example one of three pieces by the Swiss artist Ralf Gschwend. "EX, 2006" is a giant exclamation point made of polished aluminum that greets visitors entering the building. Its precarious balance positively invites observers to push it into motion so that it weaves and circles back and forth gracefully, reflecting movement in the gallery until it recovers its poised equilibrium. The encounter seems to leave every visitor happily bemused.

While a lot of kinetic art invites the viewer to set it in motion, many more pieces on display are designed to interact with changing temperatures or air currents. Gschwend's "ExoCentric Spirits, 2005" is a hanging aluminum structure with colored acrylic circles that float in the breeze. It begs to be placed in an atrium where light can filter through its colored circles from above and play on the floor below. His third sculpture, "G-Rings, 2004," is reminiscent of a system of planetary orbits that swivel and twist this way and that in a very surprising manner. That's part of the delight of kinetic art; it presents motion in a way that is sometimes counter-intuitive and one is left wondering "How do they do that?" This piece is a small version of what could become an enormous outdoor installation. At the opening reception, Grounds For Sculpture's founder, the sculptor J. Seward Johnson, Jr., introduced himself to the artist and mentioned two criteria for outdoor installations at GFS. They must meet the challenges of both children and peacocks, he said.

For me, the highlight of the downstairs exhibition was Rein Triefeldt's stunningly rhythmic "The Flyers, 2006." It's best witnessed if you withdraw a little to take in the sometimes circular, sometimes back and forth rocking movement of its two female forms. With their eyes closed and their polychromed resin and steel limbs stretched as if diving through the air, they follow one another, fingertips reaching after toes, tantalizingly, never to reach each other. It's as mesmerizing to watch and as soothing to the soul as a tank of exotic fish.

Interactive encounters continue on the second floor with Phill Evans's bizarre "Carla California Wing Walker, 1997," a mixed media copper and stone creation involving a propeller and paddle-like wings. "Carla" dances atop a metal box on a contraption of slender stilts and three wheels that reminded me of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie Flying Down to Rio.

Also upstairs, Karl Lautman's "Ouroborus, 2001," is one of those press-the-button-and-see-what-happens pieces. It's made of dominoes arranged in a circle and controlled by digital electronics. A button triggers the familiar domino effect, but by the time half of them have gone down they begin popping up again so that they are ready to fall the moment the wave hits again. Intrigued by its title, I looked it up. The ouroboros is an ancient alchemy symbol that depicts a serpent (or dragon) eating (or swallowing) its own tail, and it dates back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 B.C.E. Lautman's ouroborus stops after five cycles, until someone presses the button again. Next to it is his eccentric piece "Who's On First?" an homage to Morse and the legendary Abbott and Costello baseball routine rolled into one. Two DC relays controlled by digital electronics chatter incessantly for the 35 minutes that it takes to complete the entire Abbott and Costello skit.

Each year since 1998, GFS has exhibited the work of groups of sculptors. The artists in "MomentuM: Selections from the Kinetic Art Organization," are members of an international group founded by German Bernward Frank, Swiss Ralf Gschwend, and American Rein Triefeidt. Besides the artists already mentioned, the exhibition has works by Tom Brewitz, Pedro de Movellan, Lin Emery, Rob Fisher, Jeff Kahn, Ron Mallory, Tim Prentice, Russ RuBert, and Takis. The work on display is playful and thought-provoking with pieces that explore motion by the use of air currents, magnetism, and electricity, as well as the "force" of the observer.

The exhibition is located in the Domestic Arts Building, which dates from the 1920s and was originally a New Jersey State Fair exhibit hall. It is usually the first place visitors to GFS gravitate toward and it houses a bookstore and a café as well as changing displays.

George Rickey (1907–2002)

The second indoors exhibition on two levels in the Museum Building is a little more demanding than the first but repays serious attention. It comprises indoor kinetic sculptures by the late George Rickey, one of the world's most accomplished kinetic artists. Rickey is known for outdoor stainless steel sculptures as well as his more interior pieces. Rickey's work was honed over 50 years and, if it's new to you, it would be a good idea to view the film (The Moving, on show in a corner of the gallery) about his life and artistic motivations before viewing the artwork. It also takes a little time to adjust to the scale of the work on display here after perusing the park's large-scale outdoors installations, so I would advise viewing the exhibition before the outdoor installations.

Alongside Alexander Calder, Rickey was a leader in kinetic art and some of his best work is on view here, including his signature "Columns" of tapered lines, cubes and tetrahedra. A scientific bent informs all of Rickey's work. These pieces are spare and elemental, the result of his personal experiments with movement, which he regarded as the most critical element in sculpture, and his attempts to "see the wind."

A painter and a teacher for most of his life, Rickey began creating kinetic sculpture in his late forties after working on improving the efficiency of aircraft weaponry during War II. His body of work can be looked upon as experiments in the physics of motion. His art uses movement as a form of expression and much of it relies on the slightest of air currents. In an interview in 1996, he said: "I've been interested in the essence of movement, not just in making objects with movement but in trying to use movement as… a painter might use color." He makes use of gyroscopes, ball bearings, and his own adaptation of the gimbal, the device used on board ships to keep compasses and lights level while the ship rolls over waves. Reversing this process, Rickey created sculptures with a stable base and moving components.

An example of his work is on the campus of Princeton University. Other pieces can be seen in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as in the Tate Gallery in London. A major Rickey retrospective is planned next year in Florida's Vero Beach Museum of Art and will be accompanied by the publication of a monograph on the artist's life and work.

This exhibition is complimented by its location in the Museum Building, a 10,000-square-foot space that was built in the 1940s and originally used for exhibiting rabbits and goats at New Jersey State Fairs. Since then it's been transformed into an open glass-walled gallery with a raised-rib roof and a mezzanine for smaller-scaled pieces.

In addition to these two new indoor exhibitions, nine new sculptures by eight artists have been added to the park. "MomentuM: selections from the Kinetic Art Organization" and "George Rickey," continue until September 24, in the Domestic Arts Building and in the Museum Building, respectively. Grounds For Sculpture is open to the public year-round. Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (April to October). Admission: adults $8; seniors and college students, $7; children under 12, $4. Grounds For Sculpture is located at 18 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton, NJ 08619. For more information, call (609) 586-0616, or (609) 689-1089 (membership), or visit www.groundsforsculpture.org.

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