By Judy Cooper
For twenty-five years, Lin Emery’s Wave, 1988 has welcomed visitors to the New Orleans Museum of Art from the lily pond in front of the main entrance. The sleek, multi-faceted sculpture that sprung from the water is composed of seven interconnected arms, which seem to simultaneously move independently and collectively. Not only striking, the work is a study of mathematics and engineering.
This fall, NOMA has moved Wave into the Cascade Garden Pool in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which allows Emery’s signature touch of movement to be visible from both the Pine and Oak Groves.
For much of her life, Emery has been fascinated by chaos theory, particularly as it relates to nature and weather. Emery’s kinetic sculptures are not only inspired by natural forms, but also activated by natural forces such as magnets, water, and wind. The unpredictable character of these forces, especially the latter, yields countless visual permutations from a single sculpture.
In his essay Lin Emery: Borrowing the Forces of Nature, published by NOMA in 1996, Edward Lucie-Smith notes an intriguing paradox found in Emery’s sculptures: “These are works made of industrial materials, and increasingly dependent on a kind of industrial virtuosity for their effect.
There is nothing clumsy here: everything is economically engineered to produce the effects which the artist has in mind. Yet the sculptures themselves do not produce an industrial impression … they are ‘about the energies moving through nature.’ … [The] sculptures themselves take on the qualities of living, growing, natural things.”1
Lin Emery’s preferred material is a polished aluminum, which clearly reflects its environment and reflects onto its natural surroundings. The play between flora, water, and Wave is enchanting in the sculpture’s new home.
Wave is now located near La Poetesse, 1953 by Ossip Zadkine, Emery’s first sculpting teacher, and Four Lines Oblique, 1973 by George Rickey, a contemporary of Emery whose kinetic sculpture considers geometry in space.
To celebrate Emery’s artistic accomplishments and contributions to the community, NOMA honored the artist at this year’s LOVE in the Garden fundraiser, and is highlighting a selection of her recent pedestal and kinetic sculptures in the second floor Lupin Gallery.
Lin Emery: In Motion will be on view from November 10, 2013 through January 12, 2014
1 Edward Lucie-Smith and Lin Emery, Lin Emery: Borrowing the Forces of Nature (New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art, 1996), 13.