TitleMITRE
Artist
Lin Emery
(American, 1926 - 2021)
Date2001
MediumKinetic sculpture of aluminum and stainless steel bearings
DimensionsOverall (Sculpture - Variable): 29 × 19 × 19 in.
Other (Base): 4 1/4 × 16 × 16 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, March 19, 2003
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number2003.7
Label TextIn 1957 Emery created her first kinetic sculpture, powered by water and inspired simply by observing the movement of a spoon on the edge of a cup in her kitchen. The artist soon developed alternative techniques for movement, and her works of the 1960s and 1970s achieved this by the use of magnets. In the late 1970s, Emery eschewed the cast and welded bronze that had been her primary material and began to use polished aluminum almost exclusively. Mitre is a small version of a work of the same title that Emery created on commission for the Mitre Corporation in McLean, Virginia. The company is operated by the Federal Government and provides systems technologies for the IRS, the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Authority.
For Emery nature is “ordered, consistent, coherent, in constant flux but also in equilibrium; it has progression, rhythm, and pattern.” She has noted that her “forms are derived from symmetries found in nature” and that in her works she “borrows natural forces” such as wind, water, and gravity.”
