AIR SERIES
Performances Montage
This video presents a survey of works from many different theatrical shows, museum exhibitions, and live events.
AIR FOUNTAINS
Air Fountain at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Amsterdam with the dancer Jacqueline Back.
Air Fountain | Heydar Aliyev Center
A new Air Fountain installation is now on permanent display at the Zaha Hadid designed Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Air Fountain| CCBB Sao Paulo
Air Fountain accompanies 187 Marc Chagall artworks in Sonho de Amor at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil - three months each in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo and Brasilia.
Air Fountain| CCBB Rio de Janeiro
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Air Fountain was paired with 187 Marc Chagall artworks in Sonho de Amor at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil- three months each in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo and Brasilia. It is particularly gratifying that these exhibits are free to the public and that anyone might connect with the artwork, take a break from all the chaos that surrounds us, and watch some dreams dance through the air.
Air Fountain | Swiss Science Center Technorama
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This five meter diameter Air Fountain is on permanent display at the Swiss Science Center Technorama, where the public is invited to stand on the base and dance with fabrics as they fly.
PAS DE DEUX | MAGIC CARPET
Pas de Deux | Grand Palais - Paris
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Two sheets of shimmery, lightweight fabric fly continuously, untethered at the center of the Grand Palais in Paris, twisting and turning, rising and falling, coiling and unfurling, as they gracefully move in and out of the invisible vortex at the center of the air system.
Pas de Deux | Tate Modern Turbine Hall
Two sheets of fabric fly freely and continuously in and out of a vortex of air at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall.
Cirque du Soleil | Amaluna
Magic Carpet appears in Amaluna, the Cirque du Soleil big-top touring show as the first image of the opening scene, and again in a different incarnation, as the final, closing image of the show.
Mercedes Benz | Istanbul
The dancer Ozgecan Tapa performs with Pas de Deux at an event for Mercedes Benz in Istanbul. Under difficult outdoor conditions (windy and damp), she gives an inspired improvisational performance with an extraordinary, poetic ending.
Magic Carpet
In Magic Carpet, a large sheet of shimmery red fabric flies untethered in the center of a room, twisting and turning, rising and falling, coiling and unfurling, as it gracefully moves in and out of the vortex at the center of the air system.
Magic Carpet | Mariinski Theater
Magic Carpet plays with the Russian National Rhythmic Gymnastics Team at the Mariinski Theater.
AIR PLAY SHOW
Air Play Show
Air Play Show is a collaboration between Daniel Wurtzel and performers Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone. It is a wordless wonder and is now touring the world to sold out audiences and rave reviews. With visual images seemingly sewn from the sky, this poetic ode to childhood will enchant and electrify both the young and young at heart.
PAPER TORNADO | 2014 SOCHI OLYMPICS
Paper Tornado | 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony
Work from the Air series in the form of a paper tornado takes center stage at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony.
GLITTER VORTEX
Finding Neverland | Broadway Musical
Glitter fills the air, creating an atmospheric, optical bedazzlement at the moment of Sylvia's death, and her transition into Neverland, in the Broadway musical Finding Neverland. This effect was named one of "The Stage's Best Moments of 2015" by the New York Times Theater Section.
FLAG WAVERS
Flag Waver
Inspired by the ribbon dancers of rhythmic gymnastics, Flag Waver machines may be installed singly or in multiples, with syncopated choreography, moving in the same or opposite directions. May be installed in multiple ways on the ceiling, floor, walls, or on a pole, having up to a 360 degree, fully spherical range of motion.
WAVES
Blowout | Proof of Concept
Huge waves of fabric above the stage break the fourth wall to fly over audiences’ heads. Scalable to any size (the bigger the better) and extremely versatile, there are many ways to stage this piece, including as a conceal/reveal, kabuki drop entrance, sniffer effect exit, or to be retracted more gracefully onto the stage again. The same fabric may serve as a backdrop, a scrim, or a canopy, and may be combined with performers and light projection.
Sine Waves | Cite de L'eau
Sine Waves plays above a runway stage at Cite de L'eau in Paris.
Sine Waves | Studio Prototype
A graceful sine wave of fabric is created above a parallel series of fans.
Air Waves| Musée Rodin | Airbus - Paris Air Show 2015
Three Air Wave sculptures were created for Airbus in the garden of the Musée Rodin for the event "At the Sky's Edge," welcoming their guests to the Paris Air Show 2015.
Time Machine | Tidal Waves
This video shows the creation of enormous waves of fabric and air that could be scaled up to fill an entire stadium floor and the air space above it. Variations on this concept can produce crashing tidal waves of fabric, tubes, giant moving bubbles, domes and what looks like constantly rising and falling mountain ranges, or sliding sand dunes in a fast forward version of geologic time. Used in a theatrical context, the fabric can be blown off stage over the audience's heads, left to float there, and then snapped, or very gracefully floated back onto the stage.
A Television commercial for LG
A television commercial for LG using their LG Puricare air purifiers to produce many different artworks.
Roulette | Chill Out Tent
A large sheet of fabric undulates above an array of fans which may also be concealed in a platform below. May use different types of fabrics and accepts light projection
Reveal | Unveiling
In a new and re-imagined reveal technique, a car is revealed to be under a large fabric that is made to form waves and pop up into a clam shell backdrop behind the vehicle, before disappearing in what looks similar to a kabuki drop. The work is highly scalable for unveiling almost anything large or small, and is compatible with light projection.
FEATHER FOUNTAIN
Feather Fountain
Feather Fountain involves bird’s feathers that rise up off of the mirror base and fly in a central column of air. The feathers spin vertically around their quills, before falling back onto the base, where they are swept towards the center and up again by a sheet of air emanating from all points around the base perimeter. The piece is lit by a single source of light, recessed in the ceiling directly overhead. The feathers create dark, dancing shadows in the bright circle on the ceiling, which is a reflection of that light off of the flat mirror of the base. The convex mirror at the center of the base, and the feathers on it, cast the less bright reflection and shadows across the ceiling and walls, encompassing the entire room. The soft patter that the quills make as they hit the glass is similar to the sound of rain on a roof, adding another dimension to the overall experience.
MISTRAL TORNADO
Mistral Tornado
In this beautiful video, an indoor tornado is created as an architectural element for Moooi BV, the Dutch design company, using their lamp/ventilator, the Mistral. The installation is highly adaptable to being incorporated into different architectural spaces.
Changing Weather Patterns in The United States
Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has illuminated the fasten seat belt sign. We can expect some turbulence ahead...
LITTER
Shitstorm
Shitstorm consists of newspapers, plastic shopping bags, bubble wrap, candy wrappers, balloons and ordinary litter from the street that circle endlessly in a vortex of air. A direct commentary on the degraded state of the environment, Shitstorm was specifically inspired by my concern about the Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Gyre, a huge area in the North Pacific Ocean with exceptionally high concentrations of suspended plastics and other debris that have been trapped in this giant vortex of ocean currents.
STYROFOAM
Snow
In Snow, tens of thousands of Styrofoam peanuts are swept by fans into a great pile at the center of the room, and chaotically into the air above it- like a giant, room-sized snow-dome that one may enter. There is a strong interactive pull from this work, and people are naturally inclined to linger with it, to play, to walk through, to be buried, to tunnel through, or to just lay back, look up, and be snowed upon. Designed for the sole purpose of taking up space, used only once and discarded, styrofoam peanuts are non-biodegradable. As light as a breeze, they are hard to contain, and as such, are ubiquitous in the environment. For me, the styrofoam peanut is the ironic symbol of our mindlessly wasteful culture, manifest in a material of the least integrity.
FLOWER PETALS
Exposition of the Aerodynamic Properties of Natural Detritus
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In this piece, rose petals, tulip petals, maple seedpods, various other types of leaves, feathers, and a few colored Styrofoam peanuts are suspended in a vertical column of air. Eventually they fall into either the large polished, stainless steel funnel at the center, or onto the black Plexiglass top, where a viewer may easily push them back in to take flight again. The sound that these lightweight materials make, clinking against the funnel, is akin to rain falling on a tin roof. This piece exposes the aerodynamic properties of this natural detritus, and suspends it in a way that can be continuously observed.
PLASTIC
Ballet de Plastique
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In Ballet de Plastique,a plastic sheet flies in a vortex of air at the center of a large room.
BALLOONS
Two Balloons One Fan
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In Two Balloons One Fan, two balloons are suspended and trapped in a vortex of air generated by a single fan pointed straight upward. A dance of sorts, or contest between them is created as they continually vie for the most stable position in this vertical air column. As an example of Bernoulli's Principle of fluid dynamics in action, because the air in the center of the column is moving faster than the air toward the outside, it has lower pressure. Just as an airplane wing is sucked up into the sky because the air moves faster over the top surface, the balloons are perpetually sucked back into the middle of the air stream as they simultaneously try to escape.