MOCA Pacific Design Center
Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball Nogues Studio
In this site-specific installation over twenty-one miles of colored string are suspended in catenary curves from the gallery’s double-height walls, creating a beautifully ephemeral, yet mathematically precise, haze of shimmering lines. Titled Feathered Edge and created by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues of the experimental design firm Ball Nogues Studio, this is the third in a series of colored string “Suspensions,” preceded by the installations Echoes Converge (2008) and Unseen Current (2008). To create Feathered Edge, Ball and Nogues cut each magenta, blue, or yellow string to a slightly different length and attached it by hand to a printed mesh, a method inspired by traditional latch-hook rug making. They devised the forms using a custom parametric modeling tool, created with the help of software developers, and mechanized the production process with a personally designed and fabricated, programmable, string cutting and airbrushing machine. Amalgamating handcrafting techniques with contemporary computer technology, Feathered Edge reimagines traditional design for the digital age.
Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball Nogues Studio is organized by Brooke Hodge and Alma Luiz, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.