Joan Brigham Explained

Joan Brigham
Birth Date:31 January 1935
Birth Place:Tulsa, Oklahoma, US
Known For:Steam art
Movement:Technology art

Joan Brigham (born January 31, 1935) is an American artist, art historian and former fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is best known for her steam sculptures.[1] [2] [3]

Life and career

From 1952 to 1956, Joan Brigham studied art history at Pomona College in Claremont, California. In 1965, she earned her master's degree in art history from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1971, she has been on the teaching faculty at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts as a professor of Visual and Media Arts.[4]

From 1975 to 1995, she was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[5] For several years, CAVS was directed by the German artist Otto Piene. Since the 1970s, she has worked primarily with steam, which she uses in walk-in installations, steam-powered objects, and public fountain installations. On several occasions, Brigham collaborated with experimental filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek, who used Brigham's large-scale immersive steam installations as ephemeral projection screens. One of these works, Steam Screens, was exhibited in the Whitney Museum's Sculpture Garden in 1979.[6]

In 1977, Brigham was involved in Centerbeam, CAVS's contribution to documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany. The nearly 40m (130feet) sculpture,[7] based on a design by CAVS Fellow and artist Lowry Burgess, combined diverse artistic media such as lasers, holography, video, steam, and inflatables. Centerbeam was the result of an equal collaboration between CAVS Fellows from the fields of art, engineering, and science.[8] The curator of documenta 6, Manfred Schneckenburger, described Centerbeam as an "aqueduct into the 21st century."[9] In 1978, a second version of Centerbeam was displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.[10]

In 1984, Joan Brigham installed the Tanner Fountain on the campus of Harvard University in collaboration with Peter Walker and the SWA Group. The nearly 20m (70feet) fountain consists of 159 granite blocks arranged in concentric circles. Fine mist of water escapes the fountain in spring, summer, and fall, while in winter steam from the university's heating system is piped into the fountain and rises in its center.[11]

Selected works

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Carlock . Marty . Joan Brigham's palette of steam, mist and fog . September 8, 2023 . . August 12, 1983 . 42 . Newspapers.com.
  2. News: Art in motion . September 8, 2023 . . December 22, 2010 . G11 . Newspapers.com.
  3. News: Light and steam become art for lecturer at local museum . September 8, 2023 . . July 16, 1986 . 13.
  4. Web site: August 31, 2023 . Joan Brigham . September 1, 2023 . Emerson College . en.
  5. Web site: Joan Brigham . September 1, 2023 . act.mit.edu.
  6. Web site: Stan VanDerBeek and Joan Brigham: Steam Screens . September 1, 2023 . whitney.org . en.
  7. Book: Piene, Otto . Centerbeam . Otto Piene, Elizabeth Goldring . 1980 . Cambridge, MA . 23.
  8. Web site: Centerbeam. A Performative Sculpture by CAVS May 24, 2017 - 00:00 to October 1, 2017 - 00:00 ZKM . September 1, 2023 . zkm.de . en.
  9. Book: Schneckenburger, Manfred . Ein Aquädukt ins 21. Jahrhundert . Otto Piene, Elizabeth Goldring . 1980 . Cambridge, MA . 30.
  10. Web site: September 6, 2009 . Public Art On The Mall: Centerbeam & Icarus – greg.org . September 1, 2023 . en-US.
  11. Web site: Tanner Fountain TCLF . September 1, 2023 . www.tclf.org.

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