S-82-09
January 1982. Granite, steel.
Dimensions: 9 × 6 × 5 ft (274 × 183 × 152 cm)
Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Gift of Teddy Westreich
Teddy’s Wedge is a large-scale development of my Wedge Series, which combined the elevated, stilt-like structures of earlier works such as Triad and the Mantel Arches with the structural principles of my tensegrity, or Brute Series. Unlike the carved marble Wedges of 1975, which predated my tensegrity concerns, here a wedge-shaped piece of granite is suspended within long forged-steel rods that wrap and interlock around the stone. Gravity and the weight of the granite provide the energy—or “glue”—that locks the structure together, making the stone an active structural element.
As with titles such as Crimp and Torque, Wedge is deliberately both noun and verb: the granite is literally wedged into the steel structure, making the sculpture both object and action. The work extends my exploration of weight, balance, tension, and visible assembly into a more vertical and architectural form. The title honors Washington, DC collector Teddy Westreich, who commissioned the sculpture and later donated it to the Johnson Museum at Cornell University.
S-82-09
January 1982. Granite, steel.
Dimensions: 9 × 6 × 5 ft (274 × 183 × 152 cm)
Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Gift of Teddy Westreich
Teddy’s Wedge is a large-scale development of my Wedge Series, which combined the elevated, stilt-like structures of earlier works such as Triad and the Mantel Arches with the structural principles of my tensegrity, or Brute Series. Unlike the carved marble Wedges of 1975, which predated my tensegrity concerns, here a wedge-shaped piece of granite is suspended within long forged-steel rods that wrap and interlock around the stone. Gravity and the weight of the granite provide the energy—or “glue”—that locks the structure together, making the stone an active structural element.
As with titles such as Crimp and Torque, Wedge is deliberately both noun and verb: the granite is literally wedged into the steel structure, making the sculpture both object and action. The work extends my exploration of weight, balance, tension, and visible assembly into a more vertical and architectural form. The title honors Washington, DC collector Teddy Westreich, who commissioned the sculpture and later donated it to the Johnson Museum at Cornell University.
Installation Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell
