Arthur Ganson

Through a chain of links during casual browsing, I found myself back at a story on Boing Boing that I'd read when it originally was posted. The story is of an art work by Arthur Ganson titled Machine with Concrete. It's a working gear assembly that makes a very interesting abstract statement:

On the left an electric motor drives a worm gear at 212 revolutions a minute. A sequence of twelve 50-to-1 gear reductions slows the rotation so far that the last gear, on the right, is set in concrete. It would take over two trillion years for that gear to rotate.

The story goes on to link to several other videos of his works. And videos are what are required, because all of his works are dynamic machines, built to convey some abstract concept, or simply to tweak you on the nose; not literally, but I wouldn't put that past him.

My favorite amongst the artworks the article links to is Margot's Other Cat. However, I didn't stop there, and browsed many of the entries available on YouTube. My current favorite is Machine with Roller Chain.

So for now, Arthur Ganson is replacing Calder as my favorite producer of kinetic sculptures (and yes, I realize that this is not a correct label for his work). Indeed, he is currently my favorite sculptor of any sort, and I hope some of his works make their way to the Portland Art Museum or the Seattle Art Museum so I can see them in person.