SMALL FEATHERS 1931

Alexander Calder’s "Small Feathers" is made from wire, string, and painted wooden balls. Calder employs a mode of production accessible to anyone, using everyday materials to create an object of aesthetic contemplation. The wire dictates the sculpture's delicate form, allowing it to balance and move with air currents. The wooden balls, of different sizes and colors, add visual weight and contribute to the overall equilibrium. This isn't about carving marble or casting bronze; it's about bending wire and balancing weights, activities that highlight the artist's hand and ingenuity. Calder was engaging with the language of mass production by using industrial materials in an artistic way, and his process rejects traditional fine art conventions. The work involved appears deceptively simple, yet the mobile's elegance depends on precise engineering and aesthetic judgment. "Small Feathers" blurs the lines between sculpture, engineering, and craft, inviting us to appreciate the beauty of simple materials transformed through skillful making.