Renewable Energy Sculpture - Artists

Artists

In 1999 the artist Elena Paroucheva created her concept for pylons - sculptures «high voltage sculptures". She creates a new movement in art called "Electric art". Elena’s drawings, models, sculptures and installations for electricity pylons, wind masts and telecom towers are the first in the world solutions for the integration of energy networks with sculptures - towers. New forms: The pylons sculptures, based on lattice pylons construction have new forms: humanoids, beautiful ladies, birds, animals and insects, but also flowers and trees, letters and numbers, abstract forms… still studied for the country and the region of its location. The artwork "Source" created by Elena Paroucheva is a unique work of art in the world that has transformed four high tension pylons into beautiful illuminated dream creatures. Located in Amneville les Thermes, France, a spa and tourist center visited by five million tourists a year, "Source» has become The Eiffel Tower for Amneville. During the European Heritage Days, tours for visitors are organized to discover the pylons in dresses, a unique work in the world. http://www.electric-art.eu/index.html

Artist Sarah Hall is a glass artist who has recently been embedding solar photovoltaics in her artworks. The solar cells are an integrated part of the artworks, and the energy generated by them can be used for lighting or other purposes. Hall believes that "Incorporating colour, light and art with solar energy inspires us to think about our future in a new context."

Artist and filmmaker Julian H. Scaff has been working for several years with creating wind turbines that are also public artworks. In 2006 he proposed turning a planned wind farm in Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts into an enormous public artwork by dazzle painting the wind turbines and transforming the visual quality of both the machines and the landscape. His Venturi Towers designed for the island of Crete incorporate the scientific principle of the Venturi effect into sculpted towers. Scaff says that "We should think more freely about the aesthetics of wind turbines." Scaff's proposed Carbon Sink Sculptures are public artworks that utilize solar energy for carbon capture and storage.

Artist Alexandre Dang has developed his creation incorporating solar energy into his kinetic artworks. The Dancing Solar Flowers have become an iconic work of his eco-friendly commitment. Each Dancing Solar Flower consists of an engine running thanks to a solar photovoltaic cell which converts light into electricity enabling the flower to move as long as there is light. These flowers move even in the shadow or in presence of indirect or artificial light. "In his installations, individually simple but extraordinarily complex as a whole, Dang integrates new technologies friendly to the environment within them, using solar power as a way of expression."

Patrick Marold's in Vail, Colorado developed out of the artist's desire to create a visual map of the wind as well as to harness its behavior. On the slopes of the Rocky Mountains he installed hundreds of small windmills, each with a light whose intensity matches the intensity of the wind. Marold explains:

"This sculpture momentarily embraces the wind allowing for a more attainable vision of this natural element, systematically creating a slight delay in the viewers’ sense of time. Some people have compared the visual representation to that of a flock of birds collectively swarming in the sky, or the uniquely animate northern lights. The impressive living body of light provokes a deeper perspective of the wind as it passes by."

Artist Christine Corday's international project "Instrument for the Ocean to Play" utilizes tidal energy to produce a new sound through a temporary installed nautical work of monumental sculpture. The sculpture's intent is to inspire the imagination of a yet undiscovered sound, however its technology brings attention to a renewable energy.

Further examples of this approach to renewable energy is British artist and inventor Dan Hughes McGrail, who has taken an aesthetic sculptural approach to solar thermal technology. His background includes sculpture, heritage and eco building. He is a practitioner of Ecodesign. He believes, with the power of computerized design tools and the research resources now freely available, that aesthetics in design should be seen not as luxurious but as a normal priority: "There is no excuse to not make it beautiful", and "Form needn't follow function anymore. We have the power to model, visualize and consider them one and the same." The artist Ralf Sander`s project "World Saving Machine" utilizes solar energy to produce ice. The sculpture's intent is to inspire the imagination and it is an awareness producing device. However its technology brings attention to renewable energy. His machines negotiate environmentalism and climate change. He proposes solutions of a thought-provoking sense of humour to visualize human potential.

On a larger scale, potentially able to power entire cities, the Land Art Generator Initiative, a collaboration between artist Elizabeth Monoian and architect Robert Ferry and a project of Society for Cultural Exchange, merges renewable energy sculpture with public art. The project's first international design competition in 2010 invited interdisciplinary teams of artists, architects, scientists, landscape architects, and engineers to design large scale renewable energy sculptures for sites in the United Arab Emirates. The second Land Art Generator Initiative competition is being held for Freshkills Park (the former Fresh Kills Landfill) in New York City. Jurors for the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative include professionals such as Bjarke Ingels (BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group) and Dr. Henry Kelly (Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy).