Gravity's Loom by Ball Nogues in Indianapolis

An elegant network of over 30 miles of falling, taut and twisted strings transforms the entrance pavilion of Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Part of LA-based architects Ball Nogues' Suspensions series, the structure is composed of an array of multi-coloured suspended strings that span the entire pavilion and generate the appearance of a softly spiraling gossamer surface. The colours and forms were inspired by the classical oval shape of the pavilion and the ornamental use of colour and decoration in 19th century Baroque architecture.

This surface contorts and spirals downward through the atrium, transforming the space and re-choreographing the flow of visitors throughout the museum. Each string in the installation will hang from two points on the oval perimeter of the Pavilion, forming curves that respond to the distinctive features of the IMA building. Three dimensional volume blurs billow of colours and snaps of focused geometry.

Ball-Nogues likens their method of fabrication to a 21st century application ofIkat, an Indonesian term for the ancient textile process of resist dye.A labor intensive method, Ikat involves the application of vibrant colors to precise locations on individual yarns that, when woven, form a blurry edged pattern. Ball-Nogues have coloured and cut each individual strings in precise locations by using four computer-controlled airbrushes using a machine called the Instal-lator 1 with the Variable Information Atomizing Module. The shape of the thousands of hanging strings has been computed with a mathematical formula, but the piece was installed at the museum by human hands.

"The series title Suspensions refers to the act of disengaging from preconceived notions and intellectual interpretations, if only for a few moments, to apprehend the work with untethered expectation," the office explains. "In the installation at the IMA, there is an intentional duality at play—at one moment the implied surface frames views of the building and then at another obscures it, creating a clouded perspective of the building beyond." Beatrice Galilee