New York Art@Site www.artatsite.com Michael Sailstorfer Tornado
Artist:

Michael Sailstorfer

Title:

Tornado

Year:
2011
Adress:
Doris C. Freedman Plaza (temporary)
Website:
www.nyc-arts.org:
Rising more than 30 feet to meet the treetops of Central Park, Tornado brings together a series of opposites. It combines lightness and weight, with looming black"clouds" made from inflated truck tire inner tubes that gently shift in the breeze. Its muscular steel armature zigzags from top to bottom while ballooning rubber forms that hang in bunches from its spiraling arms are knotted together in bulging clusters. Like a tornado, which is violently powerful but also literally made of air, Sailstorfer’s towering work provides a visceral experience of sculptural form and materials in tension, massive but also vulnerable.
This arresting sculpture is a powerful response to the attributes of the site for which it was conceived and to the epic scale of New York City.

www.artsobserver.com:
The busy intersection near the Plaza Hotel, the Apple Store and Central Park is chock-full of pedestrians and traffic at all hours. So when Berlin-based artist Michael Sailstorfer imagined what he might create for his public art installation on the site, he decided to incorporate materials related to the vehicles that frequent the 60th Street and Fifth Avenue intersection—rubber tires.
The 'looming black clouds' of 'Tornado' are made from truck tire inner tubes. The swirling clusters perched atop a cement post look like industrial cotton candy. The sculpture, Sailstorfer’s first public work in the United States, will be on display from Sept. 20, 2011 to February 19, 2012.

www.timeout.com:
Berlin-based artist Michael Sailstorfer created a 30-foot-tall whirl of steel festooned with inflated truck-tire inner tubes representing clouds for the southeast corner of Central Park. When the wind blows, the stormy sculpture rotates.

www.nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com:
This is the new art installation at the Doris Freedman Plaza in Central Park near The Plaza. "Tornado" is the first public commission in the United States by Berlin-based artist Michael Sailstorfer. It is a powerful response to the attributes of the site, for which it was conceived, and to the epic scale of New York City.
Rising more than 30 feet to meet the treetops of Central Park, Tornado brings together a series of opposite terms. It combines lightness and weight, with looming black 'clouds' made from inflated truck tire inner tubes that gently shift in the breeze. Its muscular steel armature zigzags from top to bottom while the ballooning rubber forms that hang in bunches from its spiraling arms are knotted together in bulging clusters. Like a tornado, which is violently powerful but also literally made of air, Sailstorfer’s towering work provides a visceral experience of sculptural form and materials in tension, massive but also vulnerable.
Tornado is the largest in a series of the artist’s sculptures that draw on rubber tires, inner tubes, and ideas of movement and velocity. Much of his work engages with natural forces and the way we perceive them through form and physical space. At the same time, there is often a hint of whimsy in Sailstorfer’s art, conjuring a sense of playfulness, backyard experimentation, and visual wit. The exhibit runs through February 19, 2012. (Information from the Art in the Parks website.)