Howe’s Wind-Powered Sculpture

One of the most captivating elements in the Inauguration Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio was the wind-powered kinetic sculpture designed for the Olympic cauldron by the American artist Anthony Howe. It’s a two-ton sculpture designed to symbolize the sun, and it moves swiftly with the wind. Surprisingly, no one in my circle talks about it.

In his official website, Anthony Howe states that “kinetic sculpture resides at the intersection of artistic inspiration and mechanical complexity. The making of one of my pieces relies on creative expression, metal fabrication, and a slow design process in equal parts. It aims to alter one’s experience of time and space when witnessed. It also needs to weather winds of 90 mph and still move in a one mile per hour breeze and do so for hundreds of years.”

The one thing I like most about this art is that Nature becomes the paintbrush, rather than the subject. At a time when issues like global warming and climate change have become more pressing than ever, Howe’s works come -literally- as a breeze.

For a compilation of Anthony Howe’s works, you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4l5rHNSq9s

Variations on a Masterpiece

Those who adore their favorite artists, those culture vultures that would accept nothing less than a recognizable ‘masterpiece’, how do they feel when someone ‘messes around’ with the most iconic masterpieces that they have come to venerate in the name of artistic creativity?

Take the test, contemplate the images that I chose for this post, and decide for yourself.

Venus (after Botticelli) by Xin Yin:

The Last Supper (after Da Vinci) by José Manuel Ballester:

The Anatomy Lesson (after Rembrandt) by Derek Gallon: