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Sculpture Installation at the US Embassy in Athens

February 15, 2016 by Bob Hannum

Six-Week Sculpture Installation

A Major Overseas Project

sculpture installation - US embassy

In 2007 Arts Management Services LLC (AMS) was hired to manage a major and challenging sculpture installation.

For this six-week project I assembled a ten-person team (five from the US and five from Greece) to install “Garden Sculpture” by the artist Michael Singer at the US Embassy in Athens, Greece.

The project was completed on-time, within budget, and without injuries.

What Is FAPE?

The project was commissioned by The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE). This is a non-profit organization dedicated to placing American art in U.S. embassies around the world. For over 30 years, FAPE has contributed to the U.S. Department of State’s mission of cultural diplomacy by partnering with American artists. These artists are specially chosen for artworks that encourage cross-cultural understanding.

FAPE asked Michael Singer to design a sculpture to be placed outside a new building constructed on the embassy grounds. This building was design by Kalman, McKinnell and Wood Architects. Michael McKinnell and Michael Singer have a long history of collaboration which first began with their award-winning Becton, Dickinson and Company project. This new building and outdoor sculpture are adjacent to the existing embassy that was designed by the renown modern architect Walter Gropius.

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The sculpture can be viewed from several angles: from inside the new building, from its terrace, from the grounds, and from an entry bridge.

About the Sculpture

art installation - Michael Singer

It is 70′ long and made of marble, concrete, aluminum, and inlaid tile. Its 49 tons were fabricated at Michael’s studio in southern Vermont. Then it was packed and shipped. I tracked the ship on my computer as it crossed the ocean. At one point I watched the dots on my computer screen representing the container ship, sharply divert from its course to avoid a storm.

No pieces broke in transit though several replacement pieces were included just in case. These extra pieces were used to increase the concrete walkway surrounding the piece. Notice in the photos the white concrete squares embedded in the ground surrounding the sculpture.

Challenges

Dozens of custom-made wood crates arrived in a single shipping container. They arrived ahead of schedule at the port in Piraeus, not far from Athens. Good thing we shipped early since the container remained in the port for two weeks until a strike by dock workers ended.

Challenges were common in this project. Months before on my first trip to Athens to make arrangements for the installation, a rocket-propelled grenade struck the front of the embassy! I arrived just a day after this occurred. The rocket missed the American Seal it was aimed at and blasting into the ambassador’s private bathroom. No one was injured. The incident occurred early in the morning when no one was in the embassy. I was told that this is typical Greek protest, violent but not meant to injure anyone. The incident underscored the unique challenges we often face in overseas art installation.

Once the container arrived at the embassy, its contents were lifted by crane over the embassy wall and placed around the foundation.

The installation took six weeks including a week to correct errors in the concrete foundation.

What the Artist Says

The artist describes the sculpture in this way:

“…a platform-like structure emerging from below grade at one end and rising three feet from the ground level at the other end. The solid forms of the piece combine to reference a whole, as if the piece were a foundation for something once present. The piece has been said to have archaeological references, an uncovering of something lost and mysterious.”

 

Michael Singer discusses the design and fabrication of ‘Garden Sculpture.’

Water runs from the high end of the sculpture down over a narrow concrete corridor. Then it spills out onto a wide textured cast aluminum spillway. Finally, the running water falls into a deep, below-ground cistern.

Flowering indigenous succulents were planted throughout the sculpture. They now drape over edges and blend in beautifully with surrounding olive trees and lavender hedges.

sculpture installation - FAPE

Marble slabs provide seating for visitors and employees. It is a place of quiet except for the sound of birds and flowing water.

Success

Special thanks goes to Alan Chapman. He’s the best builder and troubleshooter on the planet, and he’s my number one choice when I need additional help. His unique meld of artist and carpenter make for marvelous solutions. Plus, he made us all laugh when it counted most. And brought us together when things got tense. The success of this project is dedicated to him.

Another special thanks goes to our translator, Fred Naff. He is an ex-pat and local architect who was so much more than a translator. With wonderful calm, intelligence, and humor, he guided us safely through many pitfalls, and was just a heck of a lot of fun to be around! The project could not have succeeded without him.

Update: January, 2018

This large compound of the US Embassy in Athens is expanding again! The new building designed by Kalman, McKinnell and Wood Architects only 10 years ago is now being totally gutted, renovated, and added onto. Michael Singer’s sculpture is now covered to protect it during the three-year construction project. All the plants and dirt were removed and the water shut off. When the project is completed, AMS will return to completely restore this sculpture.

Filed Under: Installation Tagged With: art installation, Arts Management Services LLC, FAPE, Michael Singer, Robert Hannum, sculpture installation

Art Installation at Singer Studio Gallery

February 13, 2016 by Bob Hannum

Gallery Installation

Art Installation - Michael Singer sculpture

Arts Management Services LLC (AMS) provides art installation, restoration, and conservation for artists, museums, and corporate collectors.

One of my clients is the environmental artist and architect, Michael Singer. He commissioned AMS to install one of his earliest sculptures created in the 70’s.

This is a sculpture he decided to keep rather than sell. We removed it from his storage facility and installed it in his Sculpture Gallery, one of the many studio buildings at his summer residence in southern Vermont. He often refers to earlier work as part of his process for creating a new one. It’s always fascinating to see what results. Sometimes he even changes the earlier piece. Not this time – so far!

New Project

The installation is also part of a new project by Singer Studios to simplify instructions so that the many museums that own his artworks can exhibit them without the added expense of our help.This has become an important issue. Several years ago Michael asked AMS to study the question of why his work was not exhibited more often. As a result, we discovered that museums would be more likely to show his work if it was not so complicated or expensive to install.

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We tried many instructional methods including video, 3-D instructions, and transparent overlays. AMS and Singer Studio staff used this piece to develop, test, and refine a new way to create installation instructions. This time we tried photographing each element as we placed it on the sculpture, then adding measurements and helpful comments on each photograph.

Success

We found that our new instructional method was a complete success. It simplified the installation process so much that any museum preparator could do it themselves.

AMS then composed a draft letter to the museums which own Singer sculpture. Michael customized each letter and sent it, followed by phone contact. The response was very positive. As a result, our first customer for new and improved instructions is the Williams College Museum of Art, followed hopefully by MOMA, Guggenheim, Wellesley College, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

The process for creating new instructions takes one week. It involves installing and de-installing a sculpture in a vacant room in the museum. AMS creates the new instructions. Singer studio pays all the expenses and the museum provides space and one person to assist.

This particular installation required one person for four full days. No restoration was required. The piece is made of rough pine and field stone, and it’s in excellent condition.

Filed Under: Installation Tagged With: art installation, Arts Management Services LLC, Michael Singer, Robert Hannum, sculpture restoration

Art Installation at Williams College

February 10, 2016 by Bob Hannum

Acquisition

Art Installation by Arts Management Services

Arts Management Services LLC assisted in the fabrication of this sculpture by Michael Singer and in the subsequent art installation for the first exhibition of this work of art at the Williams College Museum of Art.

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Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts added this sculpture to their permanent collection as a gift from one of Michael’s closest friends and Williamss alumnus, Dr. William Fishkind.

About the Sculpture

Art Installation by Arts Management Services

The sculpture is titled Ritual Series, 1990. It consists of wood, granite, fieldstone, copper, iron, and bronze. It measures 230″ wide x 230″ long x 75″ tall.

The wood has a gorgeous texture created by sand-blasting 2″ thick rough-cut pine, harvested from the woods nearby Michael’s Vermont studio. After sand-blasting, the large and heavy planks were carefully singed to create an ancient look. The wood is not coated and easily bruised so handling needed to be careful and with gloves at all times. Likewise, packing and storage was always done with special care so that no surfaces touch each other or any hard surface.

Field stone was collected from around the artists 100-acre property in the mountains of southern Vermont. Mr. Singer would assemble a group of us from his studio and line us up behind him in a single row. We would then follow him all over his fields like ducklings. He would point to a rock and one of us would pick it up and carry it. Most were too heavy to carry more than one. When we all had one we would load them on his pickup truck and transport them to be cut flat on one end. One or two would be cut in an odd way with slices up the middle.

Art Installation Details

Williams College art installation

One of the secrets of this artist’s work is the precise degree of vertical plumb and horizontal level. Most good carpenters notice when something is off-level by anywhere from an 1/8″ to 1/4.” Incredibly, Mr. Singer notices pieces that are off-level by 1/32″! This precision creates a subliminal effect of calm and quiet, making the heaviness of stone, metal, and thick wood somehow feel light, floating, contemplative, and even otherworldly. This stunning effect can be felt in many of his works.

The granite and bronze plates were heavy and the long and thick pine planks bulky, needing two to handle and place precisely according to the instructions.

Our team devised an instructional system with carefully marked photographs whereby all of his intricate sculpture such as this can be assembled and disassembled by museum and gallery preparators.

This art installation required two people five days.

These pictures show details of the piece after completing the art installation for it’s first exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art in 1990, from April 7 through October 21.


Filed Under: Exhibition, Installation Tagged With: art exhibition, art installation, Arts Management Services LLC, Michael Singer, Robert Hannum, sculpture exhibition, sculpture installation, Williams College Museum of Art

Installation of a Major Exhibition in Denmark

January 26, 2016 by Bob Hannum

Art Exhibition Installed by Arts Management Services LLCExhibitions in Aalborg and Copenhagen

In 2011, the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark and the Danish Architectural Center in Copenhagen, Denmark commissioned Arts Management Services LLC to install an art exhibition of sculpture and works on paper by Michael Singer.

For this project I assembled a team of four people including myself. The installation took one week prior to the opening in each venue.

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Art Exhibit Installation by Arts Management Services LLCWe installed four sculptures, five framed artworks, and numerous story board photos of architecture and infrastructure projects. Sculptures included Ritual Series Retellings 1999-2010. It’s made of pine, cast concrete, bronze, copper, and stone.  Its dimensions are 158″ wide x 209″ long x 65” tall.

We also installed Ritual Series Map of Memory 2001-2010. This is made of pine, cast concrete, bronze, copper, aluminum, marble, lead, and field stone. It measures 140″ wide x 180″ long x 56” tall.

Both exhibits were well received and included symposia on the role of art in saving the environment, saving the world!

Art exhibition in Copenhagen

 

Filed Under: Exhibition, Installation Tagged With: Aalborg Denmark, art exhibition, art installation, Arts Management Services LLC, Copenhagen, Michael Singer, Robert Hannum, sculpture, sculpture installation

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