Kinetic Environmental Art: Sky Sculpture

The author’s sky sculpture developed from his interest in the possibilities of making an artistic use of the Earth’s atmosphere. His first attempts were limited to skeletal forms, for example balloon-supported parallelepipeds, either tethered to the ground or in free flight, but his later sculptures included interior elements as well that helped to reveal more sensitively the motion of air. More recently he has used balloon-supported smoke candles and road flares in free flight leaving trails that indicate air currents. The motion, light and sound in these nonpermanent sculptures thus make visually evident some of the characteristics of the atmosphere.