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Charles Sowers mounts 612 wind arrows on San Fran museum with stunning results

Date
7 November 2012

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We seemed to have posted a few projects recently which take weather as their inspirations, but if creatives keep smashing it out the park then we’re happy to keep featuring. The latest meteorological treat we came across was courtesy of Charles Sowers.

The American artist installed 612 rotating wind direction indicators on the Randall Museum in San Francisco, in a bid to “visually reveal the complex and ever-changing ways the wind interacts with the building and the environment.” And my word has he succeeded with a beautiful, utterly bewitching kinetic sculpture which I could watch for hours.

Charles’ work shows a longstanding obsession with natural phenomena and he describes his mission to “draw people into a careful noticing and interaction” with phenomena that can so easily go unnoticed. His starting points may be everyday, but his realisations are anything but.

A close-up of a textured building facade in a reddish-brown hue. Hundreds of small, white, needle-like protrusions extend from the surface in a repetitive, rhythmic pattern against a clear blue sky.
Above

Charles Sowers: Windswept at The Randall Museum

A modern building features a large, textured brown facade with a swirling, organic pattern. A red car is parked in front of the cream-coloured lower level, beside a set of concrete stairs.
Above

Charles Sowers: Windswept at The Randall Museum

A grid of white, angular metal brackets is fixed to a reddish-brown wall. The brackets project outwards at various angles, creating a repetitive, sculptural pattern of light and shadow.
Above

Charles Sowers: Windswept at The Randall Museum

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

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Rob Alderson is a freelance writer, editor and strategist. He was previously editor-in-chief of It’s Nice That and WePresent, and editor of Design Week. He publishes the newsletter Undo, which tries to make sense of how AI is changing design work, the design process and the design industry.

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