Bruce R. MacDonald
Moonlight
2022

About the Item

The art on the wall is not the piece of metal. The art is the way your eyes read the space created by the light reflecting off the surface. These panels have effects that are dramatic and immediately apparent and another level of perception that is only apparent with prolonged study. Letting one’s eyes relax and simply gazing will yield bits of reflected light that curve away and behind other objects, swirls and shimmering lines that lift into the space in front of the surface. Aside from the dimensionality, these pieces can function like a diffraction grating—if one looks closely all hues of the spectrum can be seen on the surface. These are light sculpture, objects that change exactly the way sculpture changes as one walks around it. They are not meant to represent things. They are themselves and invite you to get to know and understand them. On the outside Bruce R. MacDonald’s work seems like frozen video displays lifted from the walls of some 22nd Century environment; while on the inside they have the detailing and complexity of sun sparkles on the ocean, the diversity of the forest floor, maps of some celestial event or pure abstractions of a particular moment of organic consciousness. The artist graduated with a degree from Haverford College in 1981 and decided to create physical objects. “After college I was tired of only having sheets of paper to show for long days of work. With metal, after forty hours, I had something tangible, something that would survive, and something that might be here forever.” The Museum of Science and Industry in London featured his helix CD rack on the cover of their catalog. His Teaship, a teapot that looks like a spaceship, has won design awards and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy has displayed one in his office for many years. Bruce was also commissioned to make a helix sculpture to celebrate the completion of the Human Genome Project and to make the lifetime achievement award for the Manchester Film Festival.

Creator:

Bruce R. MacDonald (1958, American)

Creation Year:

2022

Dimensions:

Height: 56 in (142.24 cm)Width: 90 in (228.6 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)

Medium:

Stainless Steel

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

2010-