I believe people can have a profound experience by being surrounded by something beautiful - that's what I aim for. My sculpture is about the way you feel when you're standing under it and inside it. It's experiential art.
From Janet Echelman
My whole career I've been interested by the distinction between an emotional and an intellectual response to an artwork.
The most powerful part of the art is experiential, yet it's the hardest to describe because it's nonverbal.
In Portugal, my sculpture 'She Changes' refers to the town's fishing history, to the era of seafaring trade and discovery. The contemporary site is industrial, surrounded by red and white striped smokestacks, which is mirrored in the pattern of the sculpture.
I pay two full-time assistants in my studio, plus consultants who are architects, engineers, and landscape architects, as well as lighting designers.
In my regular life, I am very involved in commissions for cities and sometimes countries. And I think of public art as a team sport. The outcome is only possible with the interaction of all the players.
You can't stumble upon something new and wonderful if you don't have time to stumble.
Advances in technology have opened up possibilities in the cultural realm throughout history. I'm intrigued by developments in technology - as an artist it gives me a new palette to explore.
It's good for art to make us think, to give us a shared experience that creates a dialogue, makes us talk to each other, including strangers.
In Amsterdam, the river and canals have been central to city life for the last four centuries.
4 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives