Sunil Hall

More progress on the ship piece. The waves move now! I need to tone the motion down a bit, but it pretty much there. Ive added a spring which keeps the chain under tension. This seems to work much better then the spring links I had previously been building in to the chain. Ill move on to building the boat next. I think I’m going to build a new ship rather then re-use the old one. My original solders are just too messy.

(Its a large-ish video so it might take a little while to load.)

Here are a couple of my current projects:

Sea Ghost

David asked me about this piece a while back so here’s an update. One of my early mechanical pieces was a of a ship sailing above a turbulent sea. I had first set out to see if I could create a believable wave motion. After a few different tries I found something I liked. The design allowed me to add the secondary action of a boat on the surface of the waves. The finished piece was pretty cool but unfortunately this was before I learned to solder properly and the copper tubing I used was not quite rigid enough. After a series of breakdowns and some rough handling during a move the piece collapsed. I don’t think I ever got a photo or video of it intact. Well, I’m currently rebuilding it with brass structural pieces instead of copper and a few design changes. Currently its about thirty percent done.

The waves have been retained from the original but everything else is new.

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The evolution of my Flying Machines.

I first started thinking about a machine which raised and flexed a mechanical set of wings while watching a really great documentary called The Life of Birds.

This first piece Flying Machine No.1 is more of a proof of concept prototype than a finished piece. At the time I was still learning to solder as the sloppy joins show. The piece is made of copper wire and tubing and stands about 6 inched tall. Sorry about the poor quality, my digital camera isn’t the best…

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I made this piece for the Metals in Motion exhibition held at the Oakland Museum of California by the Monterey Bay Metal Arts Guild of which I am a member. Here is an excerpt from the artist’s statement I wrote for the show:

This Flying Machine is the second out of a continuing series that explore human manipulation of nature. They honor nature by mimicking its beauty, yet mock it with their obvious artifice. Here the user gives the long extinct fish flight. It is absurd and futile yet beautiful. At once a part of and apart from nature, like all human works.

I’m working on shooting some decent videos of my mechanical sculptures. You don’t really get he whole effect without the movement. For now here are some photographs shot by my brother Kushal on the roof of his apartment building.

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I made these mobiles back in 04. They are made from basswood and painted with acrylics. At the time I was working as a Prop designer on My Life as a Teenage Robot. You can see how the art deco and 1920′s cartoon influences of that show spilled over in to my personal work.