Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog » string

Get the Ball-Nogues Rolling

Emily — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:24:28 +0000

If you have been in the IMA recently, you saw the spectacular and commanding work Gravity’s Loom by Ball-Nogues Studio, comprised of miles of colorful string and arranged in a dizzying spiral. Amanda York blogged about the creation of Gravity’s Loom during the week it was installed. Now, I see groups of visitors gathered under it daily- it is a great way to enter the museum.

Benjamin and Gaston gave a talk at the Museum after the install, where they showcased both their knowledge of architecture and commitment to their process as well as their wicked senses of humor. In case you missed it, here is the lecture. And if you haven’t seen Gravity’s Loom, get to the Museum as soon as you can!

Untangling Ball-Nogues

Emily — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:44:54 +0000

My heart goes pitter-patter every time I ride up the escalator and catch a glimpse of the spectacular Gravity’s Loom. Hear from the artists who created the commanding yet ethereal work:

Have you had a chance to see it? What do you think?

Hanging on a String

Amanda York — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:59:24 +0000

The design and fabrication collective Ball-Nogues will be installing a site specific work in the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion through September 2. Founded by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues in 2005, the Los Angeles based collective creates installations that are situated between design, art, and architecture. Using adapted raw materials such as string or steel, and everyday objects such as tables, shirts, or clothespins, Ball-Nogues’ installations evoke a sense of wonder as they innovatively engage public spaces. See more of their work here.

Their massive installation at the IMA, titled Gravity’s Loom, will be composed entirely of colored string draped from an aluminum hanging system affixed to the wall. Gravity’s pull causes the strings to become an arc shape, and an accumulation of various lengths of string in the Pavilion will converge to form a shape reminiscent of an inverted architectural dome. Ball-Nogues’ installation is an intervention into the expanse of the Pavilion—hanging a mere 3.5 feet from the floor at its lowest point, the form of Gravity’s Loom creates wide pathways through which visitors can navigate the space.

Gravity’s Loom is composed with over 30 miles of string, dyed and cut by a programmable machine called the Insta-llator 2 with the Variable Information Atomizing Module. Designed by Ball-Nogues, the Insta-llator applies paint to each individual string in precise locations and cuts each string to a prescribed length determined by an integrated custom software system. Fabricated in Los Angeles, the strings have arrived in Indianapolis on small spools organized according to the location where the string will hang. Each spool contains one length of string which will span the Pavilion at varying dimensions to create the swooping, inverted dome attached to the walls near the Pavilion’s forty foot ceilings. You can see a similar installation in progress here.

If you come to the museum between now and September 2, you’ll be asked to enter through a temporary alternate entrance due to heavy equipment necessary to construct Gravity’s Loom in the Pavilion. But you’ll be able to see the progress as the installation nears completion from behind stanchions on the 1^st floor or from the 2^nd floor balcony.

To hear the Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues discuss their work, come to the IMA on September 2.

See you there.

This Saturday, I Dare You to Come

Anne Laker — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:56:37 +0000

Last Sunday, The Toby overflowed with thirsty fans lapping up the sounds of edgy string quartet Osso and Bloomington-based songster DM Stith, with his sweet voice and dark ideas. They also couldn’t stop watching The BQE, the first film by musician Sufjan Stevens, who jammed the screen with a triptych of imagery in homage to a crazy traffic artery in New York called the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. I had to be the one to stand at the Toby doors and turn people away for this sold-out show – I hated doing so and was very bad at it.

A full house (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

DM Stith and Osso (Photo by IMA Photography Dept.)

But I hope we have that same problem Saturday night November 7 at The Toby for Caddy! Caddy! Caddy! What’s that, you say? Caddy is an elusive character in the novels of William Faulkner. We describe the performance as southern-gothic-meets-Japanese-avant-garde. Ill-fitting wigs, chalky white faces, and 4-point barbed wire are the visuals. Slow, grotesque movements are the path to the unconscious. Oguri (below) is the single name of the Los Angeles-based dancer who created Caddy!

Oguri (Photo by Steven A. Gunther)

Oguri is a master of butoh, a radical yet subtle style of Japanese dance. The first person to perform butoh was Tatsumi Hijikata, in 1950s Japan. Here’s how Oguri himself tells it: “In Japan, there was folkdance, ballet, and modern dance. Performers presented seven-minute pieces for a classy, sophisticated audience. Hijikata comes along half naked and shines the light in the audience’s eyes. He killed a chicken on stage, and the little girls fainted and he was kicked out. After he was expelled, people sought him out because he seemed so cool, and at the time, many people had the same antiestablishment sense.”

Hear ye, hear ye. If you are antiestablishment in Indy, I am summoning you to The Toby this Saturday for Caddy!, which invites you to consider your nightmares. To look into “the mirror which thaws fear.” To observe disconnection. To confront pain.

The Nutcracker it is not. And, anybody with a ticket stub from a recent Toby event gets in half-price; students of any age are free with ID. I dare you to be there…

Visit the IMA Blog tomorrow for a full interview with choreographer and dancer Oguri.