Sam Falls

(American, b. 1984)

Untitled (Wind Chimes), 2014

Powder-coated aluminum, steel base, steel hardware, and marine grade rope

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich / New York

 

Untitled (Maze), 2014

Powder-coated aluminum and steel hardware

Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York

Untitled (Wind chimes) is a larger-than-life-sized, functional wind chime. Notice the sound the colored chimes make as you gently push them toward the clapper in the center. Each time a chime hits the clapper, a bit of color on the surface falls away. This change in color acts as an index, or marker, of the exact moment that the chime made contact. In this way, the work is both ephemeral and enduring. Like photography, the work is both an object and an index of time; marked by the surface colors changing with guest interaction.

Untitled (Maze) consists of brightly colored panels, some of which are coated with light and heat-sensitive paint. The artist has made precise incisions into the surface of some of the panels, which allow sunlight to project through the sculpture. Here light is both a medium and part of the composition. Over the duration of the exhibition, these beams of sunlight slowly shift the color of the surface, creating a photogram—a photograph made by exposing a photosensitive surface to light, without the use of a camera.

Location

University of Houston

Cullen Family Plaza

College of Technology

Listen to learn more about Untitled (Wind Chimes):

May 11, 2021 artist conversation featuring Sam Falls. Moderated by Mike Guidry, Curator Public Art UHS

Take a virtual tour of at the University of Houston led by Public Art UHS Curator, Mike Guidry.

Create colorful wind chimes inspired by Sam Falls.

Art Sheet

Learn more about Sam Falls and his work.