• Art
  • PHOTOGRAPHY
  • Blog
  • About

Mobile #6 – a work in progress

  • At July 29, 2013
  • By John Wiese
  • In Art, Mobiles
  • 0

Just about finished a new mobile for my own office. After creating two large works, this will be my first formal small mobile (not a practice piece).

Wiese Kinetic Mobile #6

Kinetic Mobile #6 - Original Design by Wiese

My concept is a dancer stretching a leg out horizontally to the right while an arm is reaching back behind the head to the left.

As my office sees a lot of traffic, this new work has to be relatively shallow as I want it to move in response to people entering the room, but obviously not get bumped physically.

So I started by sketching my first designs on an A3 page in landscape format. This gave me a mobile much wider than it was tall. It also meant this work would be easy to transport (vs Dancers Touch which is a monster by comparison).

Wiese hanging kinetic Mobile #6 - 4 Elements

Next came the iPad to refine the design. I love the Brushes app as it lets me sketch different connections and flick between them without having to redraw everything.

The time consuming part of this mobile was once again in the design and placement of the wires. I’d say 3 weeks of thought went into this work before I was ready to pick up tools.




However the small scale of the work introduced two new challenges:

  1. Close proximity between each of the elements
  2. Achieving graceful ‘rhythm’ between elements using only short linkages

This mobile also gave me a crash course in Physics 101. Hmmm. I use plate steel not aluminium so the large disks are very heavy relative to smaller ones. With a small mobile this means short element arms significantly limit my options with regard to balance points. (ie – each time you double the size of a disk you need to double the length of the lever arm, or do something clever).

Wiese hanging kinetic Mobile #6 - 6 Elements

Anyway what this all meant was half way through the hands-on phase I realised my original design wasn’t feasible, so out came the iPad again for another week until I had a redesign I was happy with.

Having signed the work, now to finish painting it…

…in the end I like the finished mobile more the the original concept drawing. I’ll post the finished work in the next week or so.


Wiese Kinetic Mobile #6 - All 11 Elements

Wiese Mobile #6 - All 11 elements pre-painting & assembly

Dancers Touch – new creative work in the style of a master

  • At June 22, 2013
  • By John Wiese
  • In Art
  • 0
wiese dancers touch kinetic mobile

DANCERS TOUCH, 2012
Hanging mobile, sheet steel, solder, wire and paint
115cm wide x 125cm high

An original piece, this kinetic mobile sculpture represents approximately 4 months work which started in 2012 and concluded in early 2013. This is my fifth mobile, second major kinetic work and leverages both my engineering and creative background.

The piece is approximately 4 feet wide, 4 feet high, and is constructed of steel, solder, high tensile wire and hand painted to achieve the final result.

wiese dancers touch kinetic mobile

Dancers Touch is my latest effort to explore the field of mobiles, taking the Calder style of mobile which is largely abstract, and applying similar principles but to generate a representational work. That is, the two dancers in my work are clearly identifiable in their abstract form.



After 18 months researching artists who create mobiles (Calder, Laurent Davidson, Marco Mahler, Bruce Gray, Julie Frith, Timothy Rose, Jade Oakley, etc), I have not found a single image of a mobile similar to Dancers Touch. Most Calder style mobiles are complete abstract works, and I can attest to the complexity of creating a distinguishable form. Perform a Google image search yourself for “kinetic mobile sculpture” and observe the abstract nature of the images returned.

So today you be the judge, I hope you see the works origins, and something new at the same time…




Artist’s Statement

Grace, beauty, elegant complexity – mobiles that capture the human form in motion.

Form and motion, people and movement, that’s what inspires me. Steel, high tensile wire, solder, paint, these are my materials.

My mobiles are constructed in a traditional fashion, with single lengths of hand bent wire interlocking to create complex structures. However I’ve opted for sheet steel over lighter materials and prefer my own rather involved soldering technique to join sheet steel to wire (instead of crimping or rivets) which permits one face of the sheet steel to remain pure, clean and clear of holes or protruding wire.

I’m intrigued by movement, how a form when it moves is struck differently by light. Form and movement combine in unexpected ways to create unique moments in time. For more than 10 years I’ve captured movement with photography, now it is with my mobiles.

I’m constantly surprised when I put mobiles together by their diverse and sometimes unexpected range of movements. I also have a better appreciation of the “butterfly effect”, where a small change in one part of a complex system can have a massive effect somewhere else. Remove even the smallest piece from a mobile and you will witness the cascading collapse of the structure faster than you would believe possible.

The creative process and problem solving are two aspects I enjoy immensely when creating a mobile, and ultimately the technical and creative find harmony in each completed work. That’s once I overcome an internal conflict, the engineer in me striving for perfection, while the artist realising it is the imperfections that make people and art interesting.

Mobiles have an inexplicable effect, at least for me personally. I’ll happily spend as much time watching my mobiles as I do watching television. There is just something mesmerising about them.

I hope my work inspires others to explore this medium, just as I have been inspired by the mobile’s grace, beauty and effortless defiance of gravity.

John Wiese

Perth Skyworks 2013 – Fireworks

  • At January 26, 2013
  • By John Wiese
  • In Fireworks, Photography
  • 0

Another year, another great light show, thanks Perth…and a little less challenging to photograph with clear skys! Perth Fireworks 2013 photographed from South Perth.

Ballet at the Quarry 2012

  • At March 18, 2012
  • By John Wiese
  • In Photography
  • 0

This year I was taken along to Ballet in the Quarry by my wife who was after some original images of dancers for her art students to draw.

I shot hand-held and from quite a distance but managed to capture 50 or so shots I was happy with. Photography isn’t permitted during the performance so these are images of the warm-up.

The lighting was tricky but led to some great effects where the dancer’s shadows really add interest to the composition. Anyway a few of my favourites are below.

 

 

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Ballet at the quarry 2012

Digital Workflow – Exposure vs Brightness

  • At February 25, 2012
  • By John Wiese
  • In Photography
  • 0

The world of photography was forever changed with the introduction of digital workflow. It is simply amazing what can be done with post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, but with these changes comes confusion and complexity.

What do all those sliders really do and more importantly which ones should you be using and when…

A critical step is my digital workflow is to ensure my photos are “light & bright”, typically using the Exposure slider in Lightroom. However the tutorial below has changed my thinking forever. I recommend everyone check it out.

What you should know:

  • Exposure slider affects highlights more than shadows
  • Exposure slider is great to darken/bring down highlights
  • Brightness slider affects image tones evenly
  • Brightness control lightens evenly (less risk of blowing out highlights)

What a Light Show – Perth Fireworks 2012

  • At January 31, 2012
  • By John Wiese
  • In Fireworks
  • 0
Perth Skyworks Fireworks Australia Day 2012

Amazing. That’s the only word that can truly describe this years Perth Skyworks.

Now the fireworks were great, but what made this year special was the backdrop. Before the show even started dark clouds started to roll in, then almost on demand a lightning storm erupted as the fireworks began.

I have to say though it is far trickier capturing fireworks when you are trying to keep the camera lens clear of raindrops with a couple of dinner plates!

Having never tried to capture lightning before I found it surprisingly frustrating when major strikes occurred between exposures. Ahhh. I decided to hang around a little while after the skyshow and had much better success. It’s nice to have caught a few good lightning strikes over Perth.

Check out the rest of the shots on my Flickr site or in my Gallery.

Perth Skyworks Fireworks Australia Day 2012

 

Perth Skyworks Fireworks Australia Day 2012

 

Perth Skyworks Fireworks Australia Day 2012

Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra

  • At August 28, 2011
  • By John Wiese
  • In Photography
  • 0

Recently I was asked by someone familiar with my work if I would do a photo shoot for the Perth Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (MetSO).

I photograph predominately sport (outdoors with good light) but am always up for a challenge so happily agreed. I had initially planned to do a lot of flash work as both venues were indoors and the first (a rehearsal) was at night. Things started that way with some off camera flash.

Fortunately however the new Nikons are fantastic in low light so apart from a couple of portraits most of the 300 images were taken with just available light. This meant I was able to capture much more natural images of the musicians as a flash wasn’t constantly dazzling everyone and I wasn’t limited by the flash cycle time.

Plenty of other challenges on this one however. Really unexciting backdrop at the rehearsal venue, mixed fluro lighting and everyone was very serious. The concert shoot was actually much easier with some daylight via high windows, an attractive venue and good vantage points. Perfect really except for the fact someone turned on multi-colored stage lighting.

Even with photoshop I couldn’t get the purple light off the face in a great candid portrait. Only way I could save that image was a Black & White conversion (which actually worked really well).

Everyone was pleased with the results so it just goes to show you don’t have to rush for the flash with modern DSLRs. Save it for when available light just won’t let you catch the moment or for the really creative shots.

After such a large shoot, it was hard to pick my top five images….

Pictured are the soloist and conductor, all bar the colour image were action shots (ie- they weren’t staged). Off camera flash used for the first image, on camera flash for the last.

Perth Skyworks Photos used on Foti International Website

  • At July 23, 2011
  • By John Wiese
  • In Photography
  • 0
Perth Skyworks

It’s great when people appreciate your work and sometimes you never know where your images will end up.

I received a request from Tino Foti of Foti International Fireworks a while back.

They are the team responsible for the Perth Skyworks and other national and international pyrotechnic displays. Tino spotted my images of their Perth show on Flickr and asked if Foti could use a series of the photos on their new website.

In the end 11 of my images made it onto their site. Below are a few of the images.

http://fotifireworks.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=5

 

Page 2 of 2«12
Search

Archives


Wiese Visuals is proudly powered by WordPress