Kili Noe, Sculpture by Owen Fritts
Kili Noe is composed of five to seven rolled, formed and welded aluminum tube and flat sheet cloud structures. These individual smaller clouds vary in diameter and width. They are each a standalone work of art and when assembled form one much larger cloud I am calling Kili Noe.
6061 aluminum tubes are from ½”-2” diameter. Welded joints are ground and rounded. Drain holes are drilled at low points. Hanging points are reinforced. The aluminum is sanded to a 220 grit and left bare. This is preferable to forms of painting or powdercoating in the Hawaiian environment. A slight oxidation may form which only furthers the reference to clouds 1/8” stainless steel suspension cabling with adjustable tension rated stainless steel hardware will carry the load of each cloud section. The suspension system is over-engineered by a factor of five and will be checked several times a year for structural integrity.
Weatherproof, color changing, LED lighting is integrated into both the sculpture and the surrounding area to provide a dramatic after dark experience with pressurized water/mist/rain system.
Most days the land here is blessed with all manner of rain. Transparent, tasteless, pure: a life-giver falling from the sky, delivered by undulating and ever-changing clouds which hold images of fantasy and delight if watched for even a minute. Magic happens up there: evaporative moisture from the sea is condensed as it scales our mountains, cooling and turning from gas back to liquid in a cycle we depend on for our very lives. Falling rain can torment us or caress us. Clouds may deliver it all at once driven sideways in stinging shards or slowly in an enveloping silent mist.
For the Volcano Arts Center Niaulani Sculpture Garden call for entry “Worth of Water” I offer Kili Noe, a +/- 30’ long, four-foot deep by five-foot-high abstract cloud of welded aluminum to be suspended on stainless steel cables well above eye level, at 20’ up, in the backdrop of the majestic ‘O’hia forest which wraps around the sculpture garden.
Kili Noe brings her own rain. A subtly hidden pressurized water system runs through the sculpture to concealed misting nozzles. At preset and on command times the sculpture produces its own weather, a light rain.
Sunrise or sunset can light up a cloud bank and illuminate it as if it were a painting in the museum of Earth. Kili Noe will likewise have an integrated, color-changing LED lighting system for dusk to dawn lightscapes. Combined with the bare semi-reflective aluminum surfaces of the cloud body and the glow from the misting system the effect in the forest should astound.
Due to Kili Noes’ large-scale garden visitors will experience a sense of being under the sculpture although it will be anchored in the adjacent trees. A unique observational experience is had when art is larger or higher than the observer. Kili Noe will be both. One will look upwards at it. Wind may bring a brush of its mist across the face. The intention of the piece is to create a pause and to generate a feeling of gratitude for receiving the gift of water. Such moments are needed ever more in the acceleration of our world. Reflection on the meaning of water in our world being at the core.
The gift of water from a cloud, when it comes in soft, is Kili Noe.
