Verbal Description Transcript:

Dispersed Objects with Brass Gong was made in 1948. The various elements are made of brass, sheet metal, wire, and paint. The sculpture is 1 foot 7 inches high by 5 and a half feet wide. This is an abstract hanging mobile, suspended by a single wire from the ceiling above our heads. Hanging from the single wire is a system of connected horizontal bars, extending outwards to both sides. The bars are of varying lengths, and different colors: mostly deep orange with one in lemon yellow. Attached to each end of the bars by wires are a collection of different elements. Positioned towards one end of the sculpture – and hanging from one end of the longest bar – is a brass gong. This is the single largest element in the sculpture. Suspended from a smaller bar near the gong is a small red coil of metal: if the different elements of the mobile move in a certain way, the coil may hit gently against the gong, causing a sound. The coil is balanced, at the other end of its bar, by a white metal disc. The gong itself is balanced by a branching system of bars of decreasing sizes. Attached to the ends of the bars are various colored elements: 9 different elements in all, in varying sizes and shapes. One is a red crescent; one is a lemon-yellow disc. The others are irregular: a couple are curved-edged triangles; others completely free-flowing wavy forms. Some of the pieces point upwards, others sideways or downwards. They are colored in shades of red, orange and blue; three of them are pierced with holes. The wire that suspends the mobile is off-center, so it is almost above the gong: this means that the heavier element to one side is balanced by the branching arrangement of lighter objects to the other. The different parts of the mobile swing and move freely, and so the arrangement of the composition varies.