ARTPRIZE
Cascade Engineering Announces Sustainable Art Award Winner
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., October 8, 2009 – Cascade Engineering is pleased to announce Scott Hessels as the winner for its Sustainable Art Award as part of the ArtPrize competition. Cascade’s commitment to sustainability can be best summarized in the company’s purpose – to have a positive impact on society, the environment and to be financially successful.
As a corporate sponsor of ArtPrize, Cascade Engineering created the $2,500 Sustainable Art Award to enrich the conversation around art and sustainability. The unique category, open only to artists who were showing in the ArtPrize event, highlights those artists whose work best reflects the importance of sustainable practices among the 1,262 installations in the event. Two hundred and twenty four entries were submitted for the Sustainable Art Award and the winner was selected by a company wide vote.
Image Mill: Sustainable Cinema
As water falls over the 12-foot high “Image Mill: Sustainable Cinema”, a transmission assembly causes two wheels to spin in opposite directions. On the interior wheel are a series of animation frames hand painted onto glass; on the black outside wheel, rotating in the opposite direction, are cut slits. As the two wheels spin, the slits act as a shutter and the animation becomes visible…a movie plays in the falling water.
By converging a waterwheel with an 1800's optical illusion toy called a Zoetrope, the project explores a possible future of environmentally responsible media by referencing the histories of cinema and power sources— energy that helped build Grand Rapids, the force and beauty of falling water becomes the energy to create and display an animation (i.e. sustainable cinema). “Looking forward by looking back,” Hessels adds.
“The artwork is being fabricated in my hometown, in the economically struggling state of Michigan by metal workers who are at a transition due to the problems in the auto industry,” says Hessels, who currently works and lives in Singapore. “Creating a massive steel wheel about alternative energy proves that the skills of industrial-era tradesmen can be tapped as a valuable resource as the region considers its possible futures.”
From the Grand Rapids Press (by Jeff Kaczmarczyk) 10-9-09
Christina Keller and Lorissa MacAllister, representing the Grand Rapids-based engineering company, presented the award for the artist whose work best reflected the importance of sustainable practices among the 1,262 entries in the competition.
About 224 ArPrize entries were in the sustainability contest, narrowed to five by a committee and then selected via a company-wide vote.
Hessel's installation, an optical illusion called a zoetrope, was powered by the waterfall in the fountain at the museum.
Besides being a work of responsible sustainable media, Keller drew attention to the fact it was fabricated by out-of-work metalworkers in West Michigan.
"It does right while doing well," she said.Hessels was at breakfast in Singapore -- Friday morning 12 hours ahead of Michigan local time for him -- when he was notified. He said he was honored by the recognition for a piece fabricated in West Michigan by both green and people power.
"My late father worked at a furniture mill near that site, and coming home to Michigan to make an artwork that is about both the history and the future of my heritage has been an amazing journey," he said.
About Cascade Engineering: Based in Grand Rapids, Mich., Cascade Engineering is a leader in the development, engineering and manufacturing of plastics solutions for multiple industries, including the automotive, industrial and solid waste markets. The company is a strong advocate for sustainable business practices that emphasize the key role business can play in building financial, social and environmental capital. For example, through its unique focus on workforce development – guiding welfare recipients toward long-term employment – Cascade has learned that becoming an "Employer of Choice" can be a powerful component of overall business strategy.
About Scott Hessels: Scott Hessels is a new media artist and independent filmmaker who has worked in several different media including film, video, web, music, broadcast, print, and performance. He is best known for experimenting with the cinematic form by mixing film with emerging technologies like sensors, robotics, and GPS. After previously working at UCLA, he is currently at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.His films and videos have shown in the top international film and new media festivals, on television, and in contemporary art galleries over the past 20 years. As a media artist, his work has exhibited around the world including The Museum of Modern Art in New York last year.
His large-scale artworks are often complex partnerships and he was worked with a wide range of government and private industries including NASA, Skywalker Sound, Sony Pictures, Nokia International, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company.