Alex Sanson’s Wildly Imaginative Kinetic, Moving Sculptures

Melbourne, Australia based artist Alex Sanson began sculpting in the early 90s with a series of small, toy-like sculptures greatly inspired by Alexander Calder’s circus, a pioneer of moving sculpture. Since then, Sanson’s repertoire has developed to include both small scale and gigantic kinetic works, some interactive and activated by touch, others hand-operated. His wildly imaginative works have taken Calder’s original output and brought to it a new sense of play and movement.

Sanson’s sculptures are beautiful, strange, and rather hypnotic, often evoking the beauty of nature and cosmic wonders. At his Youtube channel, you can watch his towering sculptures, his most recent measuring 20ft tall, come to life while wondering how he did it. Sanson’s primary material is steel, but he also uses other metals, timber, plastic, stone, electrical and mechanical elements, fabricated with a variety of techniques. CAD software is used to help plan and design his increasingly complex pieces.

Sanson seems to revel in ignoring the formal structures of art and embraces challenges in design. He is now working on a series of sculptures all building on a similar concept and structure. “Spherophyte” is the most recent in this lyrical series, inspired by a blossoming flower and glittering with holographic sequins. Sanson says that the work is intended to be peaceful and contemplative, yet joyful and dynamic, and takes on a different personality in day and night viewings.

Even more remarkable is that little waste is generated in the creation of his art- all of Sanson’s sculptures are designed with considerable concern for his environment. Both his studio and house are solar-powered, making his work a representation of how we can naturally create a moving energy with minimal consumption of new resources, and how to reuse materials and parts where possible. So while his works may present an awe-inspiring imitation of nature, they also aspire to protect it.