City of Oklahoma City Artscapes (Public Art), 14 Jul 2015

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From YouTube: ArtScapes - "Curves and Swerves"

Description

Sculptor Paul Vexler talks about the making and the installation of his public artwork "Curves and Swerves" inside Oklahoma City Lincoln Park Golf Course's new clubhouse.

http://www.paulvexler.com/395684/home

http://www.okc.gov/arts

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The materials that I use, our it's a lamination of plastic laminate on one side and wood veneer on the other side, and they are glued and pressed together.

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First, they form panels that are about 12 feet long and then I connect the ends to form a long ribbon, and the dimensions of the ribbon in this case are, is 16 inches wide about a light. Eighth of an inch thick and 150 feet. Long I use a special type of joint called a scarf joint, which gives the joint the same bending characteristics that the rest of the panel house so once I join the ends together. I, don't even keep track of where the joints are, because everything has the same.

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Bending care bending characteristics, there's a lot of different ways to bend, wood and and people. A lot of people are quite often when people see my work. They they either ask me if I steamed it or they say I'll use steam that would bend it and I don't use any steam to bend the wood.

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If I get the wood to bend by making it thin. So, just like a piece of paper bends any way you want it to, because it's thin and a thick board doesn't Bend, because it's thick so I have an industrial like wide belt sander, where I can take a take veneers or a panel that has veneers on it and and if it and I can take off five or ten thousandths of an inch. However often I want, and if it's and I know how flexible I want the ribbon to be.

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Before I go to before, I make it based on the models that I've made for the job, so there's no steaming or no forms or anything there's just thickness or thinness, that determines how easily the wood bends.

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It didn't take me long to figure out if I wanted to do public art I had to fit, had to be able to pack my materials tools up and either crates or load them into trailers and ship them or drive them to other parts of the country and the whole idea of coiling the ribbon up on making a coil of the ribbon and putting it on a spool carrying or rolling that school into the building through a small door and then uncoiling it to fill lots of space I realize that there are three different ways that I could affect the shape of the rhythm, as it was hanging from the ceiling and one where I attached to the ribbon, because it's a long ribbon you can attach to it in many different places.

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To is how long the cables are up to the points that to which they are. Those cables are attached up in the ceiling and three is where on the the ceiling or the beam thats hanging from the ceiling where on that beam, those cables are attached. So between those you know dealing with those three different parameters and pulling it off the coil in certain ways, I can get the a lot of variety in the way the ribbon hangs from the ceiling.

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Everything is done, temporary first, we don't really commit to anything until the ribbon is totally in place and then we start making permanent connections, and that gives us a chance to make lots of either minor or major adjustments. It's pretty sturdy material, but it's not like it's unbreakable. So if you make the wrong decision, you can break the river. That's not fun. I do bring a repair kit with me, so if they, if it breaks I, can repair going back to the site.

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Visit I was very happy to hear during that site visit that the building was going to be used for lots of other purposes besides golf, and they that the committee was not necessarily looking for a golf type image and I I heard that loud and clear.