Swing HD and Swing HN

Raul Mourão, Brazil (2014)

Description

This artwork was featured in the International Pavilion, which was open to the public between June and October 2014.

Title: Swing HD and Swing HN
Artist: Raul Mourão (b. 1967, Brazil)
Medium: Aluminum tubes and fittings
Dimensions: Swing HD 445 x 478 x 183 cm (175 x 188 x 72 in) and Swing HN 292 x 300 x 478 cm (115 x 118 x 188 in)
Weight: Unavailable
Location: International Pavilion (North Vancouver, Pipefitters Building: 19 Wallace Mews) from June to October 2014

 

Mourão’s kinetic sculptures combine simple geometric shapes with the complex poetry of motion. At first glance, as one walked around the two-part artwork created during his residency, the great metal cubes seemed to exist simply as minimalist sculptures. However, Mourão invited his audience to push traditional boundaries separating artwork and viewer and to physically thrust the work into motion.

Like a perpetual-motion machine, Mourão’s immense sculptures customarily draw power from the tension of potential energy. For the Vancouver Biennale’s 2014 International Pavilion the simple series of aluminum tubes provided a provocative study in contradictions—unyielding metal yet constant flux.

 

Listen to the audio tour: