Client: Faultless Starch
Location: Kansas City, MO, United States
Completion date: 2010
Artwork budget: $80,000
Project Team
Artist
Dierk Van Keppel
Industry Resource
A. Zahner Company
Architect
360 Architecture
360 Architecture
Overview
The 71-foot tall mobile fills the headquarters' new skylight-capped, steel-and-timber stairway. It contains 138 glass globes of varying diameters shaped by 100-year-old molds that Van Keppel had salvaged from a defunct lamp factory. The pure and dense metal composition of the salvaged molds provides a uniform heat sink and produces exceptional texture.
Goals
A new sky light was designed to bring light into the center of this 140 year old building. The artist idea was to capture the "heavens" in this work titled Compostela. Which means field of stars or starry night. The owner and architect wanted to create a synergy to the central part of the building. Although there is an elevator adjacent to the stairs, this work has served to attract people to take the stairs as they enjoy looking at the piece. The owner described their experience with artwork as very meditative.
Process
The artist vision was supported by the architect and their 3d designer to layout the entire piece in a 3d design so that the globes could be dispersed among 12 cables in a confined 8' long x 6' wide space. All of the globes were given a place according to their size and spacing so that they would not interfere with one another.
Additional Information
The artists reference for this project dates back to the 12th century when the family began to take an annual pilgrimage from western europe to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.