Rainbow made of 60 miles of thread

Rainbow made from 60 miles of sewing thread 

Gabriel Dawe's indoor art installation

Artist Gabriel Dawe's indoor art installation is a rainbow made from 60 miles of thread. It is a part of his series of thread installation Plexus, which is a word for the interlacing network of blood vessels and nerves that sustain the body.

Dawe says that he specifically chose plexus for his works because “it refers to the connection of the body with its environment, but it also relates directly to the intricate network of threads forming the installation itself, and to the inherent tension in the thread, vibrating with an almost tangible luminosity.”

“Wonder” curator Nicholas Bell says the installation “almost causes a sense of vertigo in some people as they walk around.” 

Dawe’s installations have to stay within a contained order. Every one is precisely designed for the room that will hold it. He uses software to make his sketches, but does not use computer-aided design or any computer-generated algorithm to create his shapes.

Plexus A1, his installation, uses all the shades of the rainbow from Cyan to Red. It is part of the “Wonder” exhibition at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The space offered the freedom of 19-foot-tall ceilings, but four massive support columns essentially dictated the length and breadth of the installation.

Orignial Article: Alicia Ault at Smithsonian Mag