Janet Echelman
Janet Echelman
Janet Echelmanis an American sculptor and artist. She builds living, breathing sculpture environments that respond to the forces of nature — wind, water and light — and become inviting focal points for civic life. Exploring the potential of unlikely materials, from fishing net to atomized water particles, Echelman combines ancient craft with cutting-edge technology to create her permanent sculpture at the scale of buildings. Experiential in nature, the result is sculpture that shifts from being an object you look at,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth19 February 1966
CountryUnited States of America
I never studied sculpture, engineering or architecture. In fact, after college I applied to seven art schools and was rejected by all seven.
The most powerful part of the art is experiential, yet it's the hardest to describe because it's nonverbal.
It's good for art to make us think, to give us a shared experience that creates a dialogue, makes us talk to each other, including strangers.
I recognize that it is through the engagement with my craft - by recognizing an idea and drawing it out, building physical models, collaborating with experts, constructing the sculptures at urban scale, and maintaining them through years of weather and interaction with the public - that a new art for cities has become real.
I believe people can have a profound experience by being surrounded by something beautiful - that's what I aim for. My sculpture is about the way you feel when you're standing under it and inside it. It's experiential art.
Advances in technology have opened up possibilities in the cultural realm throughout history. I'm intrigued by developments in technology - as an artist it gives me a new palette to explore.
In my regular life, I am very involved in commissions for cities and sometimes countries. And I think of public art as a team sport. The outcome is only possible with the interaction of all the players.
Whether being battered by the surf or swimming through the gentle undulating surface of lakes, I find inspiration in the movement of water. Sometimes I think about the journey the water has traveled, reconnecting me to the larger cycles of nature.
Once I began to hear and pay attention to my fledgling ideas, the biggest hurdle was to learn how to respect them. That was hard, because the real way to respect an idea is to invest the attention and work needed to develop it.
My whole career I've been interested by the distinction between an emotional and an intellectual response to an artwork.
I believe that public space should be intentional: it should be obvious that you belong,
When ideas are young and vulnerable, criticism can be lethal.
I pay two full-time assistants in my studio, plus consultants who are architects, engineers, and landscape architects, as well as lighting designers.
My sculpture thrives in the context of the city, interacting with people in the course of their daily lives.