Skip to main content
Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Create an account to add artworks to your personal collections.

Enter your email address below to recieve an email to reset your password.

An email has been sent to your inbox to reset your password.

image alt

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle

Weather Field No. 2

2018

image alt
1 / 1

The kinetic sculpture Weather Field No. 2 by Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle was commissioned for Millstone Plaza, just north of Olin Library. The installation comprises forty-nine telescoping stainless steel poles of alternating heights, each supporting a weather vane and anemometer, ordered in a trapezoidal grid formation. Internationally renowned for his collaborations with climate scientists and engineers, Manglano-Ovalle often incorporates climate and various aspects of its elements into his work, such as pressure, temperature, precipitation, direction, and velocity. Many of his sculptures are also modeled on scientific data from such natural forms as storm clouds and icebergs. Weather Field is the second in a series of permanent installations by the artist that disengages the standard function of weather instruments, which is to accurately gauge wind direction and speed in response to prevailing wind conditions. The close grouping of the poles actually generates its own microclimate of turbulence and vortices as individual instruments react to one another—a phenomenon akin to the flocking of birds and schooling of fish. This adds a playful, poetic quality in contrast to the static installation of the poles in a grid. The use of serial repetition in the work employs a modernist artistic strategy, while its title suggests Walter De Maria’s monumental Land art installation in western New Mexico, The Lightning Field of 1977. Importantly, in its exploration of wind-generated movement, the work has a lineage with kinetic public sculpture, particularly the work of George Rickey, whose evocative, large-scale metallic artworks from the second half of the twentieth century advance a technologically driven abstract art while manipulating the physical world. Similarly, Manglano-Ovalle’s harnessing of the indeterminate qualities of weather and climate in Weather Field No. 2 exemplifies the artist’s exploration of the intersection of technology, science, and environmental concerns and their relevance today. [Cell phone tour, 2019]

  • Artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (American, b. Spain, 1961)
  • Title Weather Field No. 2
  • Date 2018
  • Medium 49 stainless steel poles, weather vanes, and anemometers
  • Dimensions overall | 20' 1 7/8'' x 13' 9'' x 23' 7 1/2''
  • Credit line University purchase, Art on Campus fund, 2018
  • Object number WU 2018.0009 a-ww

Artwork approved by curator and registrar 12/14/2018
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (Chicago, IL)

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

Related Content

go to Sustainability and Environment page
2003_0016.tif
Theme

Sustainability and Environment

Image Reproduction Request Form

To request image materials and/or permission to reproduce a work of art from the Museum's collection, please complete and submit the form below. The information you provide here will enable us to process your request and assess the appropriate images, permissions, and any applicable fees. 

Typically, image requests that do not require new photography can be completed within three weeks. Whenever possible, rush orders may be accommodated, although additional fees may apply.

If you have questions, please contact Kristin Good, associate registrar, at kristin.good@wustl.edu.

Checking this box constitutes a legal signature. By checking this box, the applicant agrees to abide by all terms and conditions under which permission is granted to reproduce works of art in the collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and that permission is contingent upon payment of any applicable fees.

* Required fields

test View details