Me beside the 14 foot Swordfish mobile at the Emory University, School of Law, McMillian Library Installation, 2014
This commission was located in the McMillian Library at the Emory University School of Law, in Atlanta, Georgia. The client was interested in a large-scale installation of saltwater fish being pursued by a large predator fish.
The scope of the project was to hang the mobiles from a two-story interior volume, 90 feet by 18feet in size, from a height of ten feet from the ceiling. This space was an open volume in the library and was flanked by a curved wall of windows, which allowed great natural light and visibility.
I proposed ten fish, one large predator swordfish, chasing three different schools of fish (jack, red snapper and dolphinfish), ranging in size and color, to be hung at different heights within the previously described volume.
The project took eighteen months from approval through fabrication and finishing with the installation. The process started with scaled drawings and paper mockups of the fish and the space. Once the design and layout was approved, it moved into the production/fabrication stage. With over 300 individual parts, I worked with a local Atlanta company to CNC route the 12 gauge aluminum sheets.
Over the proceeding twelve months, I painted, embossed and built the ten mobiles by hand. At that time I was working in a small studio space that had very short ceilings! Once I completed the mobiles I installed the pieces in the library over a weekend with the students were on break.
Me beside the 14 foot Swordfish mobile at the Emory University, School of Law, McMillian Library Installation, 2014