This artwork can be said to be a meditation on the fluid dynamics of liquids and gas, or revolving topology of surfaces, or vortex mechanics, or the forces of comprehension and tension, and it certainly calls to mind aeronautical design, and yet it is not confined to any single area of study.
“Wonderment is the key to apprehending the work upon entering the atrium. It must leverage contemplation and attention, and acknowledge scrutiny and thought as the basis for an inquiring public.”— Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
The sculpture was fabricated using the latest technology for prototyping aviation and aeronautical designs. It began with CNC carving of 20-foot molds. These molds correspond to the inner and outer geometries of the six symmetrical components that make up the 40-foot form. Vacuums were used to create carbon fiber surfaces from the corresponding molds. These extremely thin carbon fiber forms are strengthened with a series of internal structural ribs, similar to an aeronautical fuselage. The ends of these fuselage components are fitted with machined aluminum bulkheads designed to mate with their corresponding parts.
Before the sculpture was assembled, the carbon fiber surface was tiled with six-inch square aluminum alloy foil. The result: a flowing and overlapping square grid that wraps the entirety of the sculpture and was polished to a highly reflective silver surface, hence Silver Surfer.
This work combines the artist’s previous work using hypersonic fluid-dynamics with the physics of large-scale bow shock events that occur around celestial bodies.