Janet Echelman in Boston

Janet Echelman creates aerial sculptures that float between buildings, over roundabouts, inside huge lobbies - anywhere that a monumental work of art can be installed.

Boston commissioned her to make a piece that would hang over the Rose Kennedy Greenway for the summer of 2015. Echelman named it "As If It Were Already Here". I made a special trip into Boston to see it and am so glad I did. It's breathtaking!

Here's a photograph from the daytime. It looks a lot like the fishing nets that originally inspired her to try making sculptures with the material at hand. She was a painter whose paints were lost by an airline when she was traveling. She noticed the local fisherman's nets were intricate and lovely, so she learned how they made them and developed the idea into a series that is ongoing for the past 18 years.

This is the full sculpture at night when the lights have come on. They change color continuously and the sculpture changes with it. It is mesmerizing to watch it!

This is a shot I made with a zoom lens. The many colors, stripes, shapes and changing wind provide so much inspiration. 

 Echelman did a Ted talk that has been viewed by over a million people. Looking at the images on her portfolio page reveals how this series has developed. Anytime I can be in the same place as one of her sculptures I will definitely make the effort to spend an hour or two with it.