Flying Carpet by Beat Zoderer

 Flying Carpet - photo by Anna Chanakas (I appear on far right)

Colorful orange and green aluminum strips were suspended from the ceiling in a woven tapestry at the Reinberger Gallery. This sculptural installation titled, “Flying Carpet” was the Cleveland Institute of Art’s first ever commissioned piece by Swiss-born artist, Beat Zoderer. Zoderer’s piece perfectly commands the space of the gallery in an “Aha” moment as your eyes gaze upon the brilliant, colorful hues. At least that is how I felt when I saw this sculptural masterpiece. It was something I have never seen before that held my attention for more than a few minutes.

I anxiously asked the artist, if his “Flying Carpet” met his expectations. Zoderer enthusiastically replied that it superseded his expectations. I can tell he was very happy with the result.

Before the “Flying carpet” was installed, there were many unforeseen challenges. For one, the colorful paint on each aluminum strip began to flake off. In fact on many of the strips, the paint was worn off on all the edges. This could of been a tremendous set back but the gallery’s curator and the artist decided to work with the material as delivered.

The aluminum strips were cut and painted by Cleveland companies, and it would set the project back if they went back and reordered the material. Through discussions with the artist, Zoderer gave the fabricators exact color specifications and sizes of the aluminum strips. They are different lengths and widths. As a novice painter myself, it looks as though the aluminum was not prepped correctly to allow the paint to adhere to the material. It didn’t seem like the artist was too concerned about this set back.

Regardless of the paint sloughing off, the piece is down-right beautiful. It floats brilliantly off the ground with light streaming through its loosely woven aluminum sheets onto the ground. This light creates another art form where you almost want to lay on the ground. The bright colors keeps your eyes moving up and down and across - left and right. To add more interest to the piece, Zoderer bent the aluminum so it has a feeling of movement even though it is suspended from the ceiling.

Prior to the opening of the show, I attended the artist talk, and Zoderer spoke how he was working with Starbuck’s wooden coffee stirrers to get an idea developed. I have taken a few sculptural classes and the basis of an idea/concept comes to you in many, unconditional ways. You may sketch something out or you may be sculpting something out of clay to get the “creative, juices flowing.”

Moreover, Zoderer shows preliminary small scale ideas in the show that should be looked at as well. For example, he glued tiny rubber bands (I assume those annoying rubber bands you get when you buy produce) on a card, scraps from a sheet of stamps, and the coffee stirrers arranged sculpturally. It was interesting how he took cast-away items and created art or sculptural studies that might be a large scale piece; who knows. Nevertheless, I liked seeing his creative process.

I also spoke to one of the guys who helped install the piece. It did take ten days with Zoderer meticulously laying out each piece on the ground by color before the hard work began - assembling them with a rivet gun. Like any artistic piece, it is the process that you learn from, which turned out differently than Zoderer initially thought.

It’s those “mistakes” or the unintended installation procedures that turn out better than your brain calculated in the first place. I’ve done that many times when I did a design or drawing and my vision changed - throughout the process that turned out even better. I think of the so called, “mistake” as the learning process.  There is no way to perfectly manufacture the piece in your head without some learning taking place - it’s a trial and error. That is the beauty of art.

I would highly recommend seeing the “flying carpet” for yourself at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Reinberger Gallery now until May 4th.

Cleveland Institute of Art

http://www.cia.edu/events/2013/03/beat-zoderer-flying-carpet