Ed Alfrey,

Wave Form Device.

I started by taking underwater photographs of the vortex produced as a large volume of water drains from a sink pulling a column of air with it. These extraordinary images made the whirlpool seem to stand as a majestic sculptural form. After making a number of static works from plastic and elastic materials I started to use lights, motors, fans and buoyant materials to create temporary kinetic works. I did not want these to only be represented by a either a modest film document or a photographic record of a single moment in the linear process. Naum Garbo’s Standing Wave (1919) gave me the solution I had been struggling to archive. This ultra modern, early kinetic work now shows its age. I decided to dramatise not only this pivotal form but also the pioneering low-tech spirit of experimentation of the early 20s. My device incorporates redundant laboratory equipment, part NASA part Frankenstein.