Rising Tension
December 2014
29” H X 13” W X 15” L
Wooden coffee stirrers

This piece was created for a final assignment in a Creating Arts and Ideas course. The purpose of the assignment was to create a piece of art in response to a specific material. The material needed to be a common, found object that one can find multiples of. The assignment was divided into two parts. Once it was decided that wooden coffee stirrers would be used for the assignment, an initial piece of work was created in response to the material. After further research on and exploration of the material, a final piece was created.

The initial sculpture, Stacked Stirrers, is composed of wooden coffee stirrers that are stacked on top of each other. It was a simple process that used no adhesive. Four stirrers were laid down to form a square shape and the process was repeated in order to make a tower. The differing sizes of the squares and the placement of the stirrers give the sculpture a dynamic shape.

Since the initial piece does not use any adhesive, the goal was to create a final piece that also did not use any adhesive. After further research, the artist, Jonathan Brilliant, was discovered. Brilliant’s installations consist of massive sculptures made out of thousands of wooden coffee stirrers, all of which are held together by tension. Due to the fact that he does not use any adhesive, Brilliant admits that his sculptures have fallen apart before. However, he cannot do anything about it; he can only rebuild the sculpture.

The final piece, Rising Tension, is composed of wooden coffee stirrers that are woven together, and nothing but tension holds the sculpture together. Once a base was constructed, the sculpture was built upwards. The construction period required a lot of patience and determination. Stirrers would break or pop out of place and certain sections would fall apart, but the only thing that was left to do was to rebuild the section. The name, Rising Tension, not only describes the sculpture but also represents the sense of uncertainty when the only thing holding it together is tension.