38° 53′ N / 77° 02′ W ~ 45° 24′ N / 75° 43′ W - Stuart Allen
Stuart Allen is an artist whose work deals with fundamental elements of perception such as light, time, gravity and space. He has shown photographs, kites and sculpture in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad. His work is found in many private and public collections including the Tokyo Kite Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, the DiRosa Art Preserve, UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and U.S. Embassy collections in Canada, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Georgia.
Allen has completed permanent public art commissions for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada and the Police Headquarters building in Davis, CA. His work has been published in a variety of books and journals including: Picturing California’s Other Landscape: the Great Central Valley, Terra Nova: Nature and Culture, You Are Here: the Journal of Creative Geography, Zyzzyva and Artweek. Allen has lectured or served as a visiting artist at many fine institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Weisman Art Museum, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a number of university art departments nationwide.
Allen studied architecture at Kansas University and graduated from the photography and video department of the Kansas City Art Institute in 1994. He lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife Kelly Lyons, their daughter Aidan and son Vincent.
Allen is represented by the following galleries: PDNB, Dallas, TX; JayJay, Sacramento, CA; Jan Manton Art, Brisbane, Australia; Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO.
Stuart Allen, artist, photographer, sculptor, public art, kite, kite maker, art consultant, Jayjay, haw contemporary, pdnb gallery, science and art
38° 53′ N / 77° 02′ W ~ 45° 24′ N / 75° 43′ W, 1999
laminated ash and cherry, sailcloth, string, cable
6 individual pieces, average dimensions: 130″ x 60″ x 60″
permanent installation: U.S. Embassy, Ottawa, Canada
38° 53′ N / 77° 02′ W ~ 45° 24′ N / 75° 43′ W is a site specific installation in the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. The title indicates the latitude and longitude coordinates of Washington D.C. and Ottawa.
The Skidmore, Owings and Merril designed Embassy building is organized along two lofty atrium spaces which run the length of the plan. The installation consists of six individual sculptural forms hanging at varying elevations throughout these spaces. Each hangs from a single stainless steel cable, allowing the sculptures to rotate freely with the building’s interior air currents. The sculptures are a hybrid of kite and sailing vessel forms. Playing off one another, they elucidate subtle varaitions of light and air movement within the space.
The photographs included here depict the individual structures. No installation photographs are shown because Embassy policy prohibits the distribution of interior photographs of the building.