No Picnic

George W. Hart

Here is a mobile I called No Picnic (variable dimensions, up to 16 feet in length) which had been hanging in the Hofstra University student center from November 1997 through May 2000. Sadly, some members of the Hofstra University community chose to throw something at it, and damaged it severely. Although it was in a very public location, they broke chunks out from two of the spheres, and I had to remove the sculpture from the campus. It is the only one of my public art pieces to be vandalized and destroyed. Some jerks at Hofstra University do not appreciate quality and enjoy behaving badly. I may rename the surving ball The Pearl after the Swine.

From left to right, the three balls were made of 180 spoons in six colors, 150 knives in three colors, and 240 forks in six colors. There were three very different arrangements, but all with the same symmetry.

Above is a closeup of the spoon component of the above mobile, viewed along a 5-fold axis. It was about 32" in diameter. I aimed for the lowest possible density of spoons which would still be structurally sound.

And this is a close-up of the mobile's knife component, before everything was assembled. (This is the part which still survives.) It is about 30" in diameter. The 60 black knives "spin" in groups of five, the 60 white knives in groups of three, and the 30 grey knives connect them together.

In the fork component of No Picnic, I tried to get a maximum sense of density while keeping all 240 forks on the surface of the sphere. I believe it would hold itself together without glue, but I glued it anyway. Note that there were six bands of color, each band consisting of two cycles of forks in opposite directions. At twelve points, five of the bands came together, as seen in this close-up image:

I am now looking for a site to install the repaired sculpture, ideally another atrium eating place, but with a more appreciative audience. Let me know if you have a good site.

This is the spoon component after Hofstra was done with it:

I took down the mobile and left just one fork, from the damaged fork component, hanging up at the Hofstra site as a memory of it: