Sound Organ: An Installation by Mark Zirpel

January 28 - June 4, 2006
Organized by the Museum of Glass

Seattle- and Alaska-based artist Mark Zirpel was invited to be a Visiting Artist in the Hot Shop in February 2005. During his residency, Zirpel worked with the Museum of Glass Hot Shop team to realize the blown glass elements presented in this installation. After returning to his personal studio, the artist continued to work on arranging the final sculptures, perfecting the engineering and integrating the glass into these mixed-media assemblages.

Although Zirpel comes from a printmaking background, over the years he has turned his focus to producing mixed-media kinetic sculptures. Using glass as a significant component in these works, Zirpel has been pursuing his explorations into the notion of time and how we mark its passage. Previous works focused on lunar and tidal cycles, as well as corollary timekeeping systems within the human body.

The two pieces exhibited here introduce new and compelling features—sound and the possibility of music. Each sculpture explores a different way in which musical notes are produced—by air over a reed or percussion. Whereas earlier works were contemplative and subdued, animated by the slow grinding of gears and the creaking of belts, in these new works sound is no longer incidental but rather a raison d'être, a reason for being. Water and fan-generated wind, both regularly incorporated into Zirpel's repertoire as stand-ins for larger natural forces, are somewhat corralled and channeled here, as the artist attempts to wrest music from them and assert a sense of order and structure over elements often beyond our control.