Engineering in Art

“Art without engineering is dreaming; engineering without art is calculating” – Steven Roberts

For over ten years, Partridge has helped sponsor and is proud to work closely with, Sculpture by the Sea.

Partridge Event provides engineering advice and certification to many of the talented exhibiting artists. The engineering includes aspects such a wind analysis, stability checks and deflection such as, movement and sway. Appropriate footing options are designed or reviewed, taking into account any recommendations to mitigate potential failures, public interaction and safety, and the engineering undertaken ensures the sculpture performs as the artist intends.

This year for Sculpture by the Sea, 21^st Anniversary Bondi exhibition, one of the artists that Partridge Event provided engineering assistance to, is Ken Unsworth for his sculpture “The Honey Trap”.

Ken Unsworth’s, ‘The Honey Trap’

 

Partridge designed cables to support the weight of the ball for the wind. Advice was given on load testing of the connections of the cables into the ball, which were an astounding 3mm thick, and testing was carried out by hanging 500 kilograms from the cable.

We also designed the footing and connection of post to the footings.

Linton Meagher’s ‘Lookout for Me’

Another sculpture Partridge Event engineered is Linton Meagher’s “Lookout for Me”

The Work was created by volunteers from retirement homes expressing the notion of bridging seas and generations by sewing flags of their favourite beach.

Partridge Event designed a practical footing frame, cleverly concealed in the sand and connections for the timber frame sculpture. Stability checks were carried out to confirm ballast requirements, and certification.

Linton Meagher, Look out for Me, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2017. Photo Andrei Sky

Isobel Lord and Sophie Lanigan’s ‘Temple’

“Temple” is an experiential and site-specific pavilion sculpture described by the artists Isobel Lord and Sophie Lanigan, as “an architectural ephemera reflecting the landscape beyond. It functions as a reflective temple to the special peculiarity of never stepping into the same space twice”.

Partridge were responsible for the engineering certification for the Temple sculpture and worked closely with the artists from the concept design stage through to completion. The structure had to balance the visual lightness required for the artist’s vision with the ability to resist wind loading on the sculpture in the exposed conditions of Tamarama Beach.

It uses a modular structural steel frame in combination with timber framed walls and timber base frame buried in the sand to provide the overall stiffness and stability required.

 

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