Client: Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Overview

Norman Mooney is pleased to unveil his new installation, Windseeds at Brooklyn Botanic Garden from 16 November, 2022 to 8 January, 2023. The three Windseed sculptures commissioned for the Brooklyn Botanic gardens standing 12ft, 10ft and 8ft tall respectively all emanate from the same geometric structures. Windseeds, each work with 80 angular spikes jutting out from a convex polyhedron further defines Mooney’s signature starburst within the context of the natural urban environment of BBG.

Goals

Mooney, who makes works that are at once physical and metaphysical, says his sculptures “connect our personal sense of self with the larger rhythms and patterns found in the natural world, and give context to our place within the greater universal mass that surrounds us.” With a notable scale and rather uniform aesthetics, Windseeds creates a space for people to walk in and around, thus calling upon our spatial experience with the matter around us.

Process

Windseeds substantialize shapes and surfaces the artist glean from nature and science. Deriving from 'Smoke,' one of Mooney’s early sketches, Windseeds give volume and mass to a line-and-dot composition which reflects Mooney’s studies of natural elements. The spikes attached to a core structure transform clustering patterns on paper into a three-dimensional entity, blurring the lines between sublime artificial objects and natural things. A silver dandelion-shaped metal mass, the sculpture celebrates repurposed man-made objects inspired by nature.

Additional Information

Mooney is best known for his large scale outdoor installations set in both urban and botanical environments that animate the “elemental and cyclical synergies of nature.” He makes sculptures, interior and exterior installations, drawings, and works on paper. Norman’s process is intuitive more than empathetic, following a visual theory of quantum connectivity. With elements found in micro and macro universes, Mooney makes art to probe into our sense of scale, form, and pattern within physical and non-physical spaces. His works synthesize biodynamic systems from nature to configure sturdy, chunky geometric forms via means of math and mechanical science.