{"id":12212,"date":"2019-06-02T21:45:57","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T01:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=12212"},"modified":"2019-06-02T21:50:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T01:50:36","slug":"otto-piene-sky-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/06\/02\/otto-piene-sky-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Launching Otto Piene’s ‘Sky Art’ inflatable sculpture ‘Paris Star’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small crowd gathered in the field across from the Fitchburg Art Museum this afternoon to launch\u00a0Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” into the air.<\/p>\n

“It’s always different every time,”\u00a0says Elizabeth Goldring Piene, the widow of Piene, who died in 2014. “It’s an environmental piece. It has to do with the weather and the day.”<\/p>\n

The happening was the culminating event of the Fitchburg Art Museum’s exhibition \u201cFire and Light: Otto Piene in Groton, 1983\u20132014,\u201d<\/a> which closed today. They’d tried to launch the sculpture twice before this spring, but had had to postpone because of wind and rain. A thunderstorm was forecast for today, but the afternoon turned out to be sunny.<\/p>\n

When inflated by a blower, the sculpture “Paris Star” turned into large, soft spiky white flower or mace-like form on the end of a long tube-stalk that stretched across the grassy field. “It’s somewhere between a star and a flower and a hand that’s turning,” Goldring Piene tells me. “It’s about peace and optimism.”<\/p>\n

\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The volunteer crew emptied six tanks of helium into five long plastic tubes that they tied to the sculpture to lift it into the air. The tubes made rubbery bumping noise as they jostled in the gusty breeze. They got “Paris Star” briefly aloft, perhaps 30 feet up, before it settled back onto the grass, and they called it a day. About an hour later a downpour drenched the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ripping of the materials by the winds, the natural forces at work, is part of the total experience. Sometimes the elements are supportive, and sometimes, like today, they are not,\u201d Piene told The Boston Globe in March 1971, when he was struggling to get an inflatable aloft over the Charles River in strong winds. \u201cThe risk involved makes the project all the more interesting because the elements, the natural forces they represent, are never completely foreseeable. Sometimes you are strong, and sometimes they are strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously:<\/strong> During WWII, Otto Piene\u2019s Job Was To Kill Planes, Afterward He Imagined A \u2018Sky Art\u2019 Of Peace<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium-filled tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Filling<\/a>
Filling tubes with helium to lift Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium-filled tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium-filled tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium-filled tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium-filled tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Launching<\/a>
Launching Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Attaching<\/a>
Attaching helium tubes to Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Launching<\/a>
Launching Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Launching<\/a>
Launching Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Launching<\/a>
Launching Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Launching<\/a>
Launching Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” at the Fitchburg Art Museum, June 2, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A small crowd gathered in the field across from the Fitchburg Art Museum this afternoon to launch\u00a0Otto Piene’s “Sky Art” inflatable sculpture “Paris Star” into the air. “It’s always different every time,”\u00a0says Elizabeth Goldring Piene, the widow of Piene, who died in 2014. “It’s an environmental piece. It has to do with the weather and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[446,572],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12212"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12220,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212\/revisions\/12220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}