through february 19, 2018, janet echelman is helping the city of madrid celebrate with a net sculpture that explores the cycles of time — 1.78 madrid. the occasion? it’s the plaza mayor’s 400th anniversary. the plaza has seen spanish inquisition burnings and its fair share of bull fights, but this week, artists and admirers gather to share ideas.

janet echelman
all images © janet echelman, inc., 2018, photos by joao ferrand

 

 

the 1.78 — in 1.78 madrid — refers to microseconds: the exact number of microseconds that an earth day was shortened by, after a single physical event shifted the earth’s mass. the event sped up its daily rotation by 1.78 seconds. sounds infinitesimal. it is, at our scale, but echelman’s work seeks to remind us of all scales of time: the macro, the hundreds of years the plaza has been around, the micro, the milliseconds that make up every moment, everywhere in between, where we find ourselves, today, just observing.

janet echelman

 

 

the work is comprised of 600,000 knots and 77 miles of twine. they are tied together and suspended over a special city for echelman — madrid was where she created her first sculpture with architectural elements. now, with 1.78 madrid, she asks the viewer to challenge their perception of time; when a single element of 1.78’s network moves, even slightly, when a tiny patch of knots is kissed by the wind, every other element in the sculpture moves with it. gently, violently, everywhere in between, the piece is affected by force at different scales. 

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

janet echelman

zach andrews I designboom
feb 14, 2018

    have something to add? share your thoughts in our comments section below.

    comments policy
    LOG IN
    designboom's comment policy guidelines
    generally speaking, if we publish something, it's because we're genuinely interested in the subject. we hope you'll share this interest and if you know even more about it, please share! our goal in the discussion threads is to have good conversation and we prefer constructive opinions. we and our readers have fun with entertaining ones. designboom welcomes alerts about typos, incorrect names, and the like.
    the correction is at the discretion of the post editor and may not happen immediately.

    what if you disagree with what we or another commenter has to say?
    let's hear it! but please understand that offensive, inappropriate, or just plain annoying comments may be deleted or shortened.

    - please do not make racist, sexist, anti-semitic, homophobic or otherwise offensive comments.
    - please don't personally insult the writers or your fellow commenters.
    - please avoid using offensive words, replacing a few letters with asterisks is not a valid workaround.
    - please don't include your website or e-mail address in your comments for the purpose of self-promotion.
    - please respect jury verdicts and do not discuss offensively on the competition results
    (there is only one fist prize, and designboom usually asks renown professionals to help us to promote talent.
    in addition to the awarded designs, we do feel that almost all deserve our attention, that is why we publish
    the best 100-200 entries too.)

    a link is allowed in comments as long as they add value in the form of information, images, humor, etc. (links to the front page of your personal blog or website are not okay). unwelcome links (to commercial products or services of others, offensive material etc. ) will be redacted. and, ... yes, spam gets banned. no, we do not post fake comments.

    forgot password

    (184 articles)

    (6 articles)

    PRODUCT LIBRARY

    a diverse digital database that acts as a valuable guide in gaining insight and information about a product directly from the manufacturer, and serves as a rich reference point in developing a project or scheme.

    art news

    all art news