WILLIAM SMITH:
One begins to notice that diverse parts of the work strangely resemble each other in form or function and that one movement causes another–rotating wheels collide, and that sends them shooting away from each other. The specific forms of each machine start to seem less important than the operational principles underlying it, and the mental image the viewer is left with is completely unlike the images that linger after viewing more conventional sculpture. In this installation’s world there are no fixed shapes–no marble, no metal, not even implied flesh. There are only multiple interconnections and unpredictable movements. Smith may use machines, but he says he wants to make work that “gets away from being just a machine,” that somehow reflects the way nature works.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The installation is composed of three elements, each with many parts. The large rod at the room’s center is mounted on an axle suspended from the ceiling by wires and turns within a vertical plane. At each end are 12 “feet,” 6 with electrical contacts at their ends that touch a metal plate on the floor as the rod turns, causing sparks and adding an oddly threatening element. Shortly after touching the plate, the feet, controlled by a motor, shift from being extended to being perpendicular to the rod; simultaneously the feet at the rod’s other end move from a perpendicular to an extended position.
The movement of the other elements in the work is similarly unpredictable, a fascinating mixture of repetition and chaos. Friction makes the portion that crawls along the floor advance in stops and starts, and the pattern of the sparks made on the floor plate by the rotating rod’s feet continually changes. The inability to predict these events is a bit unsettling.
Smith hopes that by using “nature as a template, by knowing how it works and applying it to something you build, you may be able to get to the essence of nature. I’d like to make something that you would think of as an animal, or a lightning storm, or a waterfall, that when you look at it you might think of all nature when you see it, that gives off an aura rather than [being] just an object.”
