The mysterious, giant, 3d-printed sculpture that’s held together with… Zip Ties? #art #3dprinting

This giant purple sculpture is a mystery.

It recently appeared outside a lab building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There’s no informational plaque of any kind nearby. No artist name. No art title.

But we do know a few things:

It’s clearly 3d-printed, probably by a giant robotic printer, from a 3-dimensional digital file.

And it looks radically different from every angle.

And the dozens of 3d-printed sections are held together by… Zip Ties?

Can you see them?

So it was 3d-printed in sections, and then zip-tied together on the spot.

Ingenious.

That’s why it went up so fast.

Oh yeah, a very similar sculpture recently appeared in North Carolina.

Are they related? And who’s that shadowy ghost running by?

Stay tuned.

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BTW, this sculpture is located in Arsenal Yards, on the border between Cambridge and Watertown, in Massachusetts, USA
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BTW2, here’s what we know about the sculpture in North Carolina

“Purple,” a robotically printed pavilion designed by artist Volkan Alkanoglu, has recently been installed in Durham, North Carolina. The project, a public art addition accompanying the recently completed Durham County Main Library, compliments the building’s public forecourt.

With the use of novel technologies and its dynamic form, the 3D printed art creates a spatial ambiguity and visual effects, which are created by the merging, blending, and overlaying of its thousands of individual elements. The pavilion appears to transform throughout the day as the light changes from day and night. This environment offers a sense of place where visitors can read stories, connect, or start a conversation.

Design: VA | DESIGN
Project Team: Volkan Alkanoglu
Structural Engineering: YetiWeurks
Landscape and Light: Carolina Outdoor Lighting Professionals, Inc.
Fabrication and Installation: Branch Technology
Photography: Ryan Tyler Martinez
Client: Durham County Government
Location: Durham County Main Library, Durham NC
Date: 2020

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