Palm Beach ArtsPaper Staff
Over the last few months, the downtown area of the Boynton Beach between East Ocean Avenue and North Seacrest Boulevard has undergone a makeover.
In preparation for this year’s Boynton Beach Kinetic Art and Symposium, which is set for Friday through Sunday, art installations have been added to the area, including pieces by Singapore artist Edward Cheong (Bloomer Tree), Jeff Kahn’s Pi in the Sky and Elayna Toby Singer’s transformation of the historic kapok tree in front of the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum into a living tree of life.
“Our goal is not just a fine art exhibit,” says Debby Coles-Dobay, the public arts manager for the city of Boynton Beach, “but one where people can come learn, exchange ideas and have their creativity stimulated.”
Many artists from the inaugural biennial event in 2013, including Jerzy Kedziora, Jeff Kahn, Tom Brewitz, Rein Triefeldt, 2013 winner Lin Emery, and Swiss-born Ralfonso Gschwend, president of the Kinetic Art Organization, are back with new works.
Gschwend’s Dancing With the Wind was on view in 2013 and this year he returns with Twist, a 10-foot wind-driven sculpture that moves on multiple axes.
“The kinetic art movement is experiencing an amazing resurgence around the world,” says Gschwend, who signs his works “Ralfonso,” and whose pieces have been installed in China, Switzerland and the Netherlands, among other places.
He credits this resurgence to new media and technologies that offer a new and different palette of tools and materials for artists to explore. Smartphones and social media can provide access to art around the world.
“You do not have to be in front of the actual sculpture to enjoy it,” he says, “and anyone around the world can interact directly with the art.”
As an example, he points to a recently unveiled 28-ft. tall interactive Internet and light sculpture, Ex Strata, at the NHL University in Leeuwarden, Netherlands (http://exstrata.nl/play.)
At the symposium, Gschwend will host a panel about the artists who ushered in the kinetic art movement.
This year, Boynton Beach-based Boca Bearings will bring multi-rotor and 3-D printing demonstrations, and Flipstone Technology’s HackLab will demonstrate real-world technical innovations.
Dutch kinetic artist Jennifer Townley, winner of a $5,000 prize from Boca Bearings’ Innovation Contest, will exhibit Bussola. Her work combining 46 radial bearings, was inspired by a 1514 Leonardo da Vinci compass (“bussola” is the Italian word for compass). The skeleton-like structure seems to behave like a natural organism, moving slowly through space.
Townley says she designs for the love of science and design and not for any intellectual ideation. “Through my art I’m not trying to get any complicated messages or concepts across,” she says in an email.
“The works derive from my fascination for science and geometric patterns and I create from curiosity and a personal drive. I try to give shape to my own ideas and interests,” she wrote. “Besides the fact that I want to show the beauty of art and mechanics, I hope to stimulate a sense of consciousness in people.”
Also new this year are workshops for children and their parents to create solar butterflies given by French solar kinetic artist Alexandre Dang with the ultimate goal of teaching about solar energy and how to harness it.
Symposium events include an invitation-only reception at the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum on Friday night, followed by two days of public events.
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Events in the Kinetic Art Symposium take place at several different venues, including the kapok tree at 123 E. Ocean Ave.; the exhibition tent in the parking lot at Northeast First and Ocean avenues; the Boynton Beach City Library, 208 S. Seacrest Blvd.; the Boynton Beach Civic Center, 128 E. Ocean Ave.; the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, 129 E. Ocean Ave.; and City Commission chambers at City Hall, 100 E. Boynton Beach Blvd.
In addition, visitors can take a self-guided tour of the 14 kinetic sculptures in the Ocean Avenue District.
Here is a list of the presentations, which will take place at City Hall:
Saturday, Feb. 7:
10-10:30 a.m., Nancy Schiffer, “Pathways to Kinetic Art”
10:30 -11 a.m., Jerzy Kedziora, “Whimsical Kinetic Artforms”
11-11:30 a.m., Ralfonso Gschwend, “Celebrating Kinetic Art”
2:30 –3 p.m., Behnaz Farahi, “Interactive Environments”
3-3:30 p.m. Angus Forbes, “Computational Kinetic Artwork”
Sunday, Feb. 8
11 a.m. -12 p.m. Rein Triefeldt, “Kinetic Solar Tree Project with Students”
3:30-4 p.m., Paul Daniels, “Future Impact of Kinetic Art Triggers New Technologies”
4-4:30 p.m., Jay Flanzbaum and Cory Oliver, Boca Bearings, “Innovation and STEAM”
4:40 Awards ceremony, winners of the 2015 Kinetic Art Competition, hosted by Ralfonso Gschwend and Debby Coles-Dobay. There were a total of 82 entries, 23 outdoor and 59 indoor, from seven countries and 12 states.
For more information, please visit: intlkineticartevent.org/