Month: June 2019

Reid Drum, one of this year’s jurors, generously created our remarkable trophies–for Spectacle, Speed, and Ingenuity. The Spectacle trophy is above. Ingenuity, not shown, features an aluminum wheel, which required a special forge, as it melts at a higher temperature than copper wheels, as above.  Drum, a MassArt faculty member, runs the school’s industrial-scale, 11,000 S.F. foundry. He is a kinetic artist, and teaches classes in kinetic art and sculpture-making.

Steve Hahn won the award for Spectacle with his all-new work Lady Liberty Kickin’ Down the Wall.  The Lady’s foot rises to kick against the wall, which falls, then rises again. The crowds of the great People’s Republic of Cambridge lining the streets cheered the Lady as she passed!

 The Schainker-Frehywot Family won the award for Ingenuity, for Whale for using an ingenious kinetic control wheel. The mechanism was inspired by Rueben Margolin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2HF-1xjpP8&t=474s 6:24 – 6:53). The rotational movement generated by the “control wheel” generates the wave like motion of the whale. They also happened to be the fastest in the race, so the speed award this year went to….

The Speed trophy went to Mac Peirce, for Including the Kitchen Sink! This is the second year in a row Sink! won the Speed trophy. This fabulous work includes very interesting kinetic aspects: As the sculpture is pushed forward, the teapot turns between clockwise and counterclockwise positions, operating as “a Boolean variable container (0 or 1). Over the course of the Peoples Sculpture Race’s path the kettle displays 96 Boolean positions, enabling it to articulate a 12 byte character sequence, like HELLO WORLD!” One day soon, he’ll get the ingenuity trophy!

The muses love all sculpture racers, regardless of whether PSR awards them!

Great thanks to the behind-the-scenes crew!

FRIDAY

The day before the race was very busy for the team! We picked up two works from the Andres Institute of Art–a magic mountain of sculpture and a sculpture teaching center just across the border in New Hampshire. The Institute is directed by John Weidman, one of this year’s jurors, who lent the race one of his sculptures and a work by one of his students.

Next, we picked up Bill Wainwright’s Wheel #1 in Allston, kindness of Clara Wainwright. Our use of it was made possible by Clara, and also Ross Miller and Stuart Cody, who brought the work up from storage, and by Lew Weitzman, who made transporting the work from Allston to Central Square possible. Douglas Hayden made his garage and garage driveway available just a few blocks from the race site. Doug has contributed his space before: we were able to all give an affectionate pat to BiblioBurro, who is spending his retirement from sculpture racing in Doug’s garage.

Later in the day, PSR Chief Engineer Jeff Del Papa arrived with Race Day supplies and Dizzy the Cat, which he assembled in Doug’s driveway.

SATURDAY

Saturday, the Race Day Team Arrived–PSR Team Member Daniel Rosenberg, David Eggers, Peggy Kutcher, and David Dunne.

Shortly thereafter, Emily Bridgham and Nicholas Herold arrived to be take on their role as Race Managers (starting, timing, and ending the race), followed by Nat Herold and others who volunteered as flaggers/race marshalls.

Just before the start of the race, Reid Drum arrived with the trophies. Drum is a MassArt Faculty member, who manages the school’s foundry. He was also one of the jurors, along with John Weidman and Mags Harries.

We thank all of the above, and also those who joined the race as designated sculpture racers, including PSR Team Member Drew Wallace, and Joy Wallace and son (racing Dizzy); Ron Newman (racing Wheel #1); and two great anonymous volunteers who raced The Grand Dame of Andres, and The Winged Commuter.

Last but not least, we thank all of the racers, the spectators, and the fabulous folks at the Cambridge Arts Council, and especially Public Programs Director Julie Barry, for inviting us again this year, and making everything possible.