Using wire for sculptures is a great way to create art that is durable, eye-catching and suitable for indoor and outdoor display.
Whether you’re looking to brighten up your business premises with a custom sculpture, or create an outstanding feature in a garden or other outdoor space, here are just six of the world’s most beautiful wire sculptures.
1. Ruth Asawa’s Tied Wire Sculptures
Inspired by trees, Asawa’s tied wire sculptures are based around a series of between 100 and 2,000 wires in a single stem that branch out to create sculptures inspired by nature. The resulting sculptures often form a gorgeous geometrical pattern with symmetrical loops.
Asawa’s sculptures are known for their simplicity, but stunning beauty, with several different series exploring various ways that wire loops can be used for maximum effect.
2. Thomas Heatherwick’s Bleigeissen Sculpture
Created in 2002, the Bleigeissen sculpture sits in the Wellcome Trust’s headquarters in London. The sculpture is created from around 27,000 wires and 150,000 beads and is suspended above water on spring cables to prevent movement.
In order to create this stunning piece of art, Ormiston Wire supplied the high tensile stainless steel microcable for the structure of the sculpture, and the art was given the Lovells Art and Work award in 2006.
3. Alexander Calder’s Cirque Calder
Cirque Calder is a model of a circus, with over 70 wired figures representing the various circus performers, and over 100 accompanying accessories.
Calder began making the sculpture during the 1920s in Paris, and many of the figures were based on real life performers he encountered, and the complete set is available to view on the seventh floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The tiny sculpture is remarkable for its attention to detail and innovative use of the materials used to make it including wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners and bottle caps.
4. Elizabeth Berrien’s Airport Pegasus
Known for her astounding animal wire sculptures, Berrien’s Airport Pegasus was created in 1985 for the airport in Louisville, Kentucky.
The pegasus is created from a series of twisted aluminium rods with a wingspan of around 17 feet. The sculpture is suspended under the glass dome of the airport, and seems to change its appearance depending on the time of day, quality of light and the weather.
5. Edoardo Tresoldi’s Opera Sculptures
This sculpture is a permanent installation on the seafront of Reggio Calabria in Italy, and was constructed in 2020.
It depicts classical architecture through the transparency of using a wire mesh structure, and is a typical example of Tresoldi’s style, which usually consists of a nod to architecture in his pieces, and represents the founding pillars of Western society.
6. Anne Mondro’s Adapt Series
Anne Mondro is an American artist, who creates wire sculptures to represent the human body and its relationships.
Her Adapt series focuses on the body’s ability to repair, transform, and be altered, with a mix of clinical wire and more organic mediums used to reflect on how the body can be medically altered by human engineering.
Do you know of any impressive wire sculptures? Share your favourites in the comments section below!
