unique sculpture by Zac Merten

steam bent black walnut and hard maple, stainless steel

Zac’s approach:

My work usually surrounds making grounded, solid pieces that often employ rectilinear lines, joinery, and supports that need to withstand uses from the loads of humans or other heavy items. This show is a chance to leave the ground and leave the demands of addressing that load bearing to look for pure, lightweight, and graceful curves. Making them into mobiles that drift through the air is another notch into the flight of those curves. I took the chance to build a new steam machine from aspects that I learned last year and took the opportunity to get scientific in its design, testing, and monitoring of the results. In the end, wood becomes pliable in a very rubbery and gratifying way when "cooked to perfection."