The summer weeks have flown by here at Mindport. We have a few bits of news to share with you, as we wind towards our permanent closure this fall.
One of our legacy exhibits, Marbellous (shown above in its former exhibit configuration) has recently enjoyed an upgraded presentation format.
Local craftsman, Jamie McPherson, has designed and built a custom pedestal for this delicate piece. The new presentation brings the work off of the wall and transforms the exhibit into a piece that can be enjoyed from all angles. The inner workings can now be seen through a transparent backing as well, so you can get a sense of where the marbles go, when they aren’t visible from the front anymore. In addition, the clear backing format lights up the interior in ways that weren’t possible on the wall. The new format brings a new way to enjoy this older work, even if you’ve interacted with it many times.
In addition to providing a new presentation, the pedestal also reduces the normally long maintenance hours required from this exhibit before. So, thank you, Jamie for your thoughtful design, which accomplishes what all good design does: it functions beautifully and looks good while doing it. Jamie designed the pedestal to allow the angle of the piece to be slightly altered-a factor in the ongoing maintenance issues the exhibit faced while installed on the wall. The inner structure allows us to tilt Marbellous slightly backwards, instead of forwards, the way that it did when installed on the wall. This slight change allows gravity to do its work, and it’s easier for the marbles to keep circulating through the exhibit. In this photo, Jamie and Michael make adjustments in the Mindport shop.
Jamie used the leftover pieces of wood from the original construction of Marbellous to craft the new pedestal, so it looks like it’s always been part of the piece. There are even places for marbles to be glued into place!
We hope you can come in soon to experience the piece yourselves, and to read more about the ideas behind its creation by founding director, Kevin Jones. He’s written over three pages about the process of making it.
If you’d like to take a memento of Marbellous with you, we have cards with a contemporary illustration designed for us by local designer Erin
James available at the front desk. We hope to see you soon.
