Janet Echelman sculpts at the scale of buildings and city blocks. Her work defies categorization, exploring sculpture, public art, and urban transformation.

Her practice draws inspiration from ancient craft and combines technology to create living, breathing pieces that respond to the forces of nature. 1.78 Borås is a sculpture that explores the cycles of time. The title refers to the number of microseconds that the day was shortened when a single physical event, the shifting of the earth’s tectonic plates, caused an earthquake and tsunami and also shifted the speed of the earth’s rotation.

This work examines the complex interaction of the many systems of our physical world with one another. The artwork reminds us of our complex interconnectedness with larger cycles of time and the systems of our physi­cal world. The sculpture’s materials embody this. When any one element in the sculpture’s network moves, every other element is affected. Echelman sees the need to find moments of contemplation in the midst of daily city life. Her work creates an opportunity to contemplate the larger cycles of time and reminds us to listen to our inner selves, something that Echelman believes can be the start of transformation.

Janet Echelman lives and works in Florida, USA. After graduating from Harvard College, she lived in a Balinese village for five years, then completed separate graduate programs in painting and in psychology. A recipient of an honorary doctorate from Tufts University, Echelman has taught at MIT, Harvard, and Princeton Universities. To date, the 1.78 sculpture has been installed in Madrid, Spain (2018); Dubai, UAE (2018); and Beverly Hills, California (2019). Echelmans artworks have become focal points for urban life on several continents, from Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Santiago, to Beijing, Boston, New York and London.

You can see 1.78 Borås between May 29 and July 13.