Gas Sculpture and other Kinetic Sculptures

Gas sculpture is a proposal made by Joan Miró, a painter, sculptor and ceramist born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in his late writings to make sculpture out of gaseous materials.

There is an example of gas sculpture in the sculpture garden at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. A large bank of very small nozzles is arrayed on the edge of a small rush-filled pond, and when the power is switched on a fine mist of fog billows out. The 'sculpture' has a continuously changing shape as it is affected by the water, the rushes and the air-currents in the area.

The name is derived from the scientific term, kinetic energy, which is the energy possessed by a mass by virtue of its motion including the atomic level as in heat.

Alexander Calder (inventor of the mobile) and George Rickey pioneered kinetic sculpture. Other leading exponents include Yaacov Agam, Marcel Duchamp, Naum Gabo, Jean Tinguely, Zero group and Arthur Ganson.

Mobiles are a type of kinetic sculpture. Some kinetic sculptures are wind-powered, and others are motor driven. A variety of human powered craft involved in cross country races and parades are considered kinetic sculpture.

Kinetic sculptures are often implemeted as installation art.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

> Return to Sculpture Reference Section
> Return to Art Main Reference Category
> Return to NEWSdial.com