GAWDA Edge Blog 
  

In the tradition of the casual Friday blog entry, started by my predecessors at the GAWDA Edge blog, here’s an interesting video to supplement the latest issue of GAWDA Edge. As you learned in the August issue that came out yesterday, Bellingham Technical College’s Welding Rodeo is a welding sculpture competition. At the end of the contest, sculptures are auctioned off to raise money for scholarships.

Here’s a video of one of the sculptures being auctioned off from this year’s event. It was made from the mold of a female model and welded together using scrap metal.

Take a guess how much it went for. How much would you pay for it? (Don’t forget it goes to a good cause.)

Want to know? You might be surprised. Watch and find out.

Here’s another view:

I wrote recently about how compressed gases are used in the creation of artistic jellyfish sculptures, but now I would like to take a look at a more traditional form of art that involves this industry: welded sculptures.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC has announced a planned retrospective of artist Ron Arad’s work from October 2 to October 19, 2009. Many of Arad’s works are composed of stainless steel which he cuts and welds into massive, magnificent pieces of art. The majority of them will be displayed in a Corten and stainless steel cage called the Cage sans Frontieres. The cage is 126.5 feet long and 16 feet tall and was designed and built by the artist.

Since I’m not exactly an art connoisseur, I figured I’d include an excerpt from artdaily.org to best describe Arad’s work:

This exhibition celebrates Arad’s spirit by combining industrial design, studio pieces, and architecture…The structure [Cage sans Frontieres] is in the shape of a twisted loop and consists of 240 square cut-outs lined with stainless steel that act as shelves for the objects in the exhibition. The dramatic installation relies on the scale of the structure and on the reflectivity of the inner walls of the cut-outs which creates a ricocheting effect.

Arad uses a combination of sophisticated automated manufacturing techniques and low-tech welding devices to fabricate his works of art. These welded pieces will be displayed at the MoMA for two weeks as the museum’s featured exhibit.

To artists like Arad, a welding torch might as well be a paint brush or a chisel. Many artists, therefore, depend on their welding supply distributors to provide all their artistic supplies. Art work of this nature can often be found on display at gases and welding distributorships as an example of what is capable with welding. A welded sculpture adds a decorative touch to any distributor’s showroom.