Mobile #6 – a work in progress
- At July 29, 2013
- By John Wiese
- In Art, Mobiles
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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).

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:
- Close proximity between each of the elements
- 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 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
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.

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…
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
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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
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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.
Digital Workflow – Exposure vs Brightness
- At February 25, 2012
- By John Wiese
- In Photography
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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)