Creative movement - kinetic sculptures

Once a sculpture is made, the viewer can see what the artist wanted to convey. Or, at least, can imagine it. But it all happens when the sculpture sits still, letting itself be looked at. There is a different kind of sculpture - kinetic sculptures - which, through movement, continually change their appearance, becoming hypnotic images. I too was mesmerized by David C. Roy's art and decided to tell you a little about both the artist and his art.

David C. Roy is an American kinetic artist who has over 150 such moving sculptures. Each has its own mechanical mode of movement, not driven electrically or otherwise. Most of the works are one-of-a-kind, some being made in very small series.

The artist from Connecticut, USA, the son of an aeronautical engineer, has always been interested in science, movement and inventiveness. A year after graduating from Boston University, a year spent as a programmer for an insurance company, he decided to leave his career as a programmer and become an artist at the suggestion of his future wife, a design school student.

His works are not clocks, although they have mechanisms similar to mechanical wall clocks, pendulums: suspended weights, counterweights, regulators, etc. The mechanisms are used to create the movement, which starts with an impulse given by hand. In the case of the first works, the movement takes around 30 minutes. Now David has works that move for over 40 hours, starting with a simple impulse.

The wood used for the works is birch laminate, basically layers of birch veneer glued together. Roy also focuses on sound not just movement. He has made regulators that are very quiet, or that make that specific sound of wood rubbing against wood. Sometimes he incorporates sound tubes in his work that are reminiscent of the ringing of bells.

In the beginning, David designed his work from the idea and drew it by hand. Over time, building on the experience of his early years, he moved into computer-aided design and animation.

David C. Roy is a well-known and appreciated artist. His work has been the subject of articles in such famous publications as the New York Times, Discover Magazine and the Journal Inquirer. I leave you to follow the hypnotic movement of his work Infinity - Infinite