FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 1981
THOMAS SHANNON
COMPASS OF LOVE
SHANNON STANDARD COMPASS
DOWNTOWN: 31-33 Mercer Street, New York (Between Grand and Canal) Opens March 14.
Thomas Shannon, 33 years old artist/inventor, is showing his new levitated sculpture, COMPASS OF LOVE and the SHANNON STANDARD COMPASS.
COMPASS OF LOVE
COMPASS OF LOVE contains a 24-foot magnesium needle that astonishingly floats horizontally in the Earth's magnetic field 30-inches above the floor. The needle passes over a polished 12-foot diameter aluminum dome.
The 20 pound needle will float 10,000 years without external power.
Shannon has been creating systems for floating masses for 15 years. The levitation system, invented for this work by Shannon, is in his words: "a precise arrangement of atoms. The Earth is a large magnet; an atom is a tiny magnet. Together billions of atoms can overcome Earth's gravity."
Shannon draws parallels between the dynamics of love and the deflection of the compass needle; the attractive/repulsive behavior of magnetism.
In the current Fantastic Architecture exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, he is simultaneously unveiling a smaller companion levitated sculpture AIRBORNE ISLAND. This sculpture is a study for a garden park designed to float 1-mile above the Earth using his Vacuum Structure System.
SHANNON STANDARD COMPASS
In addition to developing a system for floating masses, Shannon has been creating what he calls "Magnatomic Systems." These systems have application in the study of atomic structure, atomospheric particle movement and astronomy, particularly in regard to the magnetosphere.
Using a "Magnatomic System," the SHANNON STANDARD COMPASS is a 10-foot aluminum tube which is hung from the center of the ceiling by one wire while balancing on bearings.
In comparison to COMPASS OF LOVE, the smaller more human size of the SHANNON STANDARD COMPASS allows the audience to actually interact with and become part of the magnetic field. The compass can be rotated by the viewer but has the power to relock into the magnetic field. The orientation of the work is determined by the planet.
This piece, according to Shannon:"is tuned into a conventional reality; one of non-fiction rather than the fictional reality of the COMPASS OF LOVE."
This is Shannon's third exhibition at the Feldman Gallery. The public is invited to the opening on Saturday, March 14. The gallery hours downtown at 31-33 Mercer Street (between Grand and Canal) are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 – 6 PM.
For further information and photographs contact Lynn Cassaniti 212-249-4050
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