Three Liner

Artist: Evan Lewis

City/state: Mineral Point, WI

About the Work and the Artist: Evan Lewis has been producing outdoor kinetic wind sculpture since 1984. He has created sculptures for the City of Phoenix in Arizona, the City of Denver in Colorado, the McCormick Center in Chicago, Illinois, the City of Toledo in Ohio, and has numerous pieces sited in college campuses all over the Midwest. The Warner Brothers film studio commissioned Lewis to produce the sculptures prominently featured in the motion picture "Twister".

Evan Lewis grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He received his BFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. He works as a professional sculptor and lives with his wife and children in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. 

Three Liner is a wind-activated kinetic sculpture. The most compelling aspect of kinetic work is the motion. The energy source - the wind - is invisible, and that makes the sculpture take on a lifelike quality of a creature swimming upstream or flying upwind. It is this lifelike quality that I focused on in designing the sculpture to appear as a bird or a fish on a journey through space and time. At times it appears to struggle and then to soar, a metaphor for our own process of discovery in our lives. If we observe the sculpture repeatedly over time it becomes a talisman or a forecaster of our own experience right now, and forever. The name Three Liner refers to the sculpture’s ever-changing nature. Many objects we encounter are simple and do not require any further scrutiny; they are true “one-liners”. Three Liner, on the other hand, must be observed in various weather conditions and times of the year to comprehend its full repertoire.

Three Liner represents the theme of resiliency in a literal and a metaphorical way. The sculpture is structurally strong and sound in the face of some very adverse weather. During an exhibit in Florida, it survived three consecutive hurricanes without the slightest damage. It’s also resilient against freezing temperatures, and hot and humid weather. The metaphorical resiliency comes in the form of constantly negotiating obstacles in the form of strong wind currents and gusts. The sculpture first resists the challenge only to find a way to work with the “new normal”. This process is reminiscent of our own struggles, confronting challenges and then finding the strength and resources we have in us to keep going.

Materials: Welded pipe and rebar, stainless steel, aluminum sheet

Dimensions: 5'W x 15'H x 5'D

Purchase Price: $15,000