Another artist I researched who works with strings and knots is sculptor and fiber artist Janet Echelman. She is famous for her sky-high sculptures created from miles of fiber, casting a magical spell over urban spaces. One of her beautiful pieces 1.8 was inspired by data sets of tsunami wave heights rippling throughout the Pacific Ocean. The artwork digs into topics concerning our intricate interdependence with greater cycles of time and our physical surroundings. The net structure of the sculpture is a physical manifestation of interconnection, as one part moves, every other element is impacted.
The other impressive piece of her work is SHE CHANGES. Using color and material to invoke the memory of the site’s history as a fishing and industrial center, this three-dimensional multi-layer net floats over the Cidade Salvador Plaza. It is credited as the first permanent, monumental public sculpture to use an entirely soft and flexible set of membranes moving fluidly in wind. The work casts cinematic shadow drawings onto the ground, further highlighting the “wind choreography.”
The third piece I would like to talk about is Dance Collaboration. She collaborated with choreographer Katarzyna Kozielska of the Stuttgart Ballet for the world premiere of the performance “A. Memory,” The delicately hanging sculpture pulsated and swayed in response to the expressive motions of the dancers below. “A. Memory” opened with a dancer connected to the voluminous form, almost as an extension of her body. As the music intensifies, her gestures match it and the sculpture echoes her movements. This work opens up another possibility for human-spatial interaction and stimulates a new imagination of the relationship between people and space.