Swarm



Swarm, 2013
6x6x14 feet
lead sinkers, over-the-hill birthday candle wax, thread, wire, motor, latex tubing

A large, mechanized mobile created site specifically for the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, MI that mimics the motion of a swarm of flies or bugs. A single motor slowly turns a wobbly wire apparatus which supports multiple pieces of thread occasionally holding a bit of lead and black wax. As the wire lightly catches on pieces of latex tubing, the whole piece wobbles and sways making the various pieces of lead and wax move slowly but erratically like a swarm of flies. All of the threads are attached to each other in some way, so the motion of one wire, thread or lead/wax “fly” always affects the rest creating an agitating but beautiful visual manifestation of interdependence.