Marc Fornes Designs Massive Aluminum Sculpture for Orlando Convention Center

Artist Marc Fornes has completed a permanent installation at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center. Suspended from the building’s atrium, the coral-like sculpture, called Under Magnitude, showcases Fornes’s Structural Stripes, a material system cut from flat pieces of aluminum.
 
The branching installation, composed of 4,672 riveted components, achieves a curvilinear form reminiscent of Frei Otto’s soap bubble model, but with tighter curvature and constant directional change. Fornes bent the aluminum slats in a way that makes them sturdy enough to support human weight, despite their one-millimeter thickness.
 
Image courtesy of MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY.

Under Magnitude’s white color continues a palette that Fornes established in past works, such as Labrys Frisae at Art Basel Miami 2011 and NonLin/Lin Pavilion, shown at the Frac Centre in France. More recent work, such as Vaulted Willow in Edmonton, Alberta, features painted shingles in pastel gradations.