SILVER CURRENT

by: Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics

NEW BEDFORD, MA – To mark the launch of The Massachusetts Design Art and Technology Institute (DATMA), the non-collecting contemporary art center and its partners kicked off a city-wide, collaborative venture called “Summer Winds” from July 1 to September 30, 2019. Open and free to the public, DATMA has commissioned the centerpiece of “Summer Winds,” a large-scale, site-specific architectural art installation called “Silver Current” created by internationally celebrated and Los Angeles, CA-based artist Patrick Shearn and his Poetic Kinetics team.

“DATMA has a unique approach to art exhibition, forgoing a traditional museum visit by engaging community partners to provide an unprecedented experience to showcase original and contemporary art innovation to its visitors,” said Lindsay Mis, Executive Director of DATMA. “Our inaugural season is inspired by New Bedford’s rich ongoing and historical connection to the ocean and seafaring.”

“Silver Current” features a 6,500-square foot kinetic net sculpture, in Shearn’s signature style, installed over Custom House Square in New Bedford, MA throughout the “Summer Winds” season. DATMA has chosen the theme of wind to highlight a natural element of the Southcoast geography that has inspired and brought prosperity to many in the past and will do so again.

Made out of ultra-lightweight metalized film, “Silver Current” is the latest of the artist’s series “Skynets” that will move and shimmer with the wind, from 21 feet off the ground to 55 feet in the air. The customized piece is comprised of approximately 4,197 linear feet of rope, 18 handtied technical knots, and approximately 40,300 streamers of holographic silver film on a monofilament net, forming an iridescent wind wave form. Harnessing available wind, the artwork rises high into the sky and gently cascades down again, undulating in a display that is striking from a distance and intimately immersive up close.

“Today’s winds no longer push sails of whaling ships,” said Roger Mandle, Board Chair and Co-Founder of DATMA, “but they will now drive wind turbines set sail for a new course creating a wind energy industry that will invigorate the New Bedford area and produce masses of inexpensive, and environmentally pure, renewable energy for the region and beyond.”