Photos by Clements/Howcroft, Boston
Fata Morgana
2001
Artists: Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter
32'h 32'w 16'd
cast metal/stainless cable
Terminal-21, Port Everglades
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
This sculpture is a romantic pictorial exercise pushing a traditional painterly subject--the seascape--into three dimensions. Situated in the soaring vertical entryway of a cruise terminal, Fata Morgana offers dynamic and varying visual effects which change with the position of the viewer.
The central image is a cruise ship and its reflection. Over sixteen hundred cables are suspended from a framework attached to the ceiling. Precisely affixed to the wires are several thousand small pewter geometric elements that "above water" coalesce into an image of an ocean liner on the sea and "below water" render an illusion of the ship's reflection.
Surrounding the cruise ship and extending to a nearby balcony is a horizontal plane of additional components collectively forming an illusory "ocean".
An assertive use of color marks the artists' attempt to exploit the optical dynamics of 19th century Pointillism.
Architect: Scharf & Associates, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Commissioned by the Broward County Division of Cultural Affairs
Project Team: Chris Taylor
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