Lightning Sculpture

Rockne Krebs

1938–2011

Lightning Sculpture, 1973

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: graphite; acrylic; airbrushing

Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 62.2 x 48.3 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 24 1/2 x 19 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 32 x 24 in

Credit line: Gift of Philip M. Smith

Accession number: 2010.0222

Not on display

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Exhibition Label: "Rockne Krebs: Drawings for Sculpture You Can Walk Through," Aug-2013, Steve Goddard Here Krebs imagines a “super duper lightning sucker” that is at once a sculptural artwork and a source of energy for the nearby house. The text indicates that the work is “unconditionally guaranteed to suck all the electrical energy out of the sky in the most artistic fashion within a twenty mile radius for one year,” with some additional cautionary statements about the red and black buttons. The inspiration for the piece was no doubt a conversation recalled by Philip M. Smith. “I described current research in lightning,” Smith recalls, “telling Rockne that if we could capture all the daily lightning discharges on the earth we could supply electricity to all humankind. A couple months later I saw Lightning Sculpture, an imaginary piece that created a machine to harness lightning, thus creating huge sculptural works in the sky.