Arthur Ganson’s Poetic Kinetics

Yesterday my heart went out to the image of a small, walking wishbone that seemed to pull, like a frail ox, a complex contraption behind it. It was the most melancholy wishbone I’ve ever seen. Like most of Arthur Ganson’s kinetic sculptures, Machine with Wishbone makes up for in poetry what it flouts in productivity. While most machines are designed for speed and efficiency, Ganson has none of that. His sole purpose is the poetry of movement. About his sculpture, Machine with Fabric, he writes, “While on a search at a fabric store, looking for material for some other project, I came across a bit of blue material that took hold of me and asked me to move it slowly.” And so he does, creating a device that mesmerizes, forcing us to appreciate the simple grace in the folding and unfolding of a silk swatch. The short blurbs that accompany Ganson’s YouTube spots such as Machine with Abandoned Doll, for example, or Cory’s Yellow Chair, are gems in themselves, revealing the stories behind the creations and the philosophy of an artist whose gears turn just because there is beauty in turning.