Tempest
Tempest
Artist
Brian Tolle
(born 1964)
Date2010
MediumPowder-coated aluminum, fiberglass, and LED lights
Dimensions5 × 33 × 29 ft (1.52 × 10.06 × 8.84 m)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift of Ruth and William S. Ehrlich, 2017.15
Accession number
2017.15
On View
On viewLabel TextYou are invited to walk into Brian Tolle’s Tempest, a 33-foot wide winding sculpture.
A tempest is a violent storm, and the form of Tolle’s work resembles swirling wind and waves of a hurricane, with the eye of the hurricane at the center of the sculpture. The Tempest is also the name of a play written by William Shakespeare, where the illusion of a storm causes a ship to appear wrecked. The blue fiberglass-inlaid top of the aluminum walls is shaped to resemble the jagged contour of turbulent waters. When viewed during the day, the cool blue resembles swelling waves. At night, LED lights enclosed within the fiberglass emit a soft turquoise glow.
