Earthtime 1.78 Beverly Hills, CA, 2019
DESCRIPTION
Earthtime 1.78 Beverly Hills, a sculpture in Janet Echelman’s Earthtime Series, was installed in August, 2019 between the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and Beverly Gardens Park as part of the city’s annual BOLD Summer festival.
Titled Earthtime 1.78, the sculpture is a contemplation about the interconnectedness of all of us - human beings and the natural world. The form of the artwork is inspired by a scientific data set that records the interconnection of a shift in time of the earth’s rotation (the length of a single day) and the surface of the ocean. Echelman was contemplating the fact that our earth’s rotation is not fixed, so our system of measuring time cannot be fixed either. In this constantly shifting reality, there are a myriad of other earth systems that are constantly changing, and our human actions are interwoven into this complex network.
“I feel a need to find moments of contemplation in the midst of daily city life,” Echelman said. “If my art can create an opportunity to contemplate the larger cycles of time and remind us to listen to our inner selves, I believe this could be transformative.”
The monumental floating form of Earthtime 1.78 is composed of layers of fiber, braided and knotted together in vibrant hues that pulse with changing wind and weather to create a choreography of undulating color. At night, the sculpture comes to life with projected colored light. Lightweight and flexible, the sculpture is designed to travel to cities around the world as a physical manifestation of the interconnectedness.
To date, the Earthtime 1.78 sculpture has been installed in Madrid, Spain (2018), Dubai, UAE (2018), Beverly Hills, CA (2019), Boras, Sweden (2021), Helsinki, Finland (2021), and Vienna, Austria (2021).
MATERIALS AND SIZE
Fiber, Buildings and Sky combined with Colored Lighting. Fibers are braided with nylon and UHMWPE (Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene)
Dimensions of net: 100 ft. length x 45 ft. width x 20 ft. depth
CREDITS
Art: Janet Echelman
Studio Echelman Project Manager: Melissa Henry
Installation Production: Tom McClain
Lighting: Chris Medvitz
Sculpture Engineering: Arup: Clayton Binkley
Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau: Bob Bibeault, Lauren Santillana
Photography: Janet Echelman, Brooke Mason, Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau, Brallan Perez Favela
Location
Between the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and Beverly Gardens Park, Beverly Hills, CA