Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Design Spotlight: Sculptor Michael Jones McKean

Michael Jones McKean just won a Guggeinheim Fellowship. This is especially exciting to me because he is a sculpture professor at my alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University. According to richmond.com, "His work goes from the monumental - such as using 2,000 pounds of clay in one sculpture - to the ephemeral. His latest project, "The Public Rainbow Project," seeks to create rainbows over public buildings. He already started by creating a rainbow over his studio on Mulberry Street" in Richmond, VA.
"A recent installation includes a ghostly re-constructed riverboat that gives the illusion of being 100-feet long. The same installation, entitled "Riverboat Lovesongs for the Ghost Whale Regatta" includes an 800 gallon acrylic water tank, a 10 horsepower three phase special effects fan, a 1986 Super Jumbo boom box and a Hall and Oates soundtrack." Check out some images from MJM's Riverboat installation. The final image, a photo of his studio, illustrates his Public Rainbow Project.


5 comments:

  1. This is one of the coolest things in the world.

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  2. THat is so cool. Thanks for sharing xo

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  3. Neat. I had a friend in Seattle just get asked to look into making a rainbow over a billboard.

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  4. Anon: that's great! McKean uses water, pumps, hoses and nozzles to create the rainbows. there is more info on his website.

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