The Opposite of All Those Things (by Heather and Ivan Morison)
My mind is blown tonight, after an artist talk by Heather Morison, half of Heather and Ivan Morison. My sketchbook is full of notes, but what really got me is here she is, just a few years older than me, with these FUCKING INCREDIBLE!!! projects, just spectacular, all over the world, AND she's published a couple of books, AND she has children... I will never, ever, ever, ever come close!
I really loved the Sleepers Awake project - making another moon over this desolate place in Sittingbourne - but what I really, really loved was how so many of their projects were weather-dependent, and would only be seen when the conditions were right. I love that! Not just site-, but weather-specific!
Little Shining Man from Heather and Ivan Morison on Vimeo.
I loved 2 of the questions she answered, in different ways. One, after she was asked about how it felt when the giant dinosaur sculpture, Luna Park, burnt down, and she was asked about vandalism and public art - and she said when The Black Cloud installation in Bristol kept getting vandalised, they'd just go out and fix it - and eventually, the people doing it got bored, and stopped. I loved that!
The Black Cloud - Heather & Ivan Morison - Bristol, 2009
The other - well, this made me laugh, wryly. I asked, in the Q&A, how she got from art school to making amazing work all over the world - the answer was, Ivan had worked for Frieze, and she worked for an art magazine, so they got to know really influential people in the art world - so the answer was, more or less "get to know people, and make really, really good work".  OK then!
Sleepers Awake - Heather and Ivan Morison - 2011, Sittingbourne
She was a fantastic speaker, though - I really recommend her, and damn, I'll be looking out for their work whenever I can!
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"Little Shining Man is a sculpture that has the potential for flight. The design of the structure is based around the tetra kites of Alexander Graham Bell, multiplied out into colliding cubes that take their form from the cubic formations of the mineral Pyrite. A double wing module has been duplicated and arranged into a tight cellular structural arrangement that appears as a heavy, un-flyable mass. Utilising lightweight materials and the symmetry of the module and composition, it is able to fly freely and steadily.
The kite flown in the images is one section of an arrangement of three, that come together to create the final piece of sculpture that is taken own from display once a year to be flown in St. Aubin’s Bay.
There were several challenges in realising Little Shining Man. The structure had to be as strong and light as possible in order to fly, but had to return to earth with minimal damage so it could be installed as a piece of sculpture. Carbon fibre rod and Cuben fibre, a hand made composite fabric used primarily in racing yacht sails, achieved the perfect combination of strength and weight. The visual impact of the fabric produces an ethereal sense of depth and refraction that gives the heavy mass the lightest touch.
Queen & Crawford designed a joint system, the CKJ_01, a universal Nylon joint that would handle every connection in the composition. They work closely with 3TRPD in Newbury who are at the cutting edge of the Rapid Prototyping Industry. Printing the joints allows design, production, testing and refinement in a short time frame. The material is light and strong, perfect for this application.
More than 23,000 individual components make up the complete structure. Entirely assembled by hand; from design through to delivery more than 16 months of work.
Matthew Higginbottom, Queen + Crawford, 2011".
