The dirigibles created by Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont inspired a sculptural project now on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles. The exhibit is the first presentation of the work, completed after a decade of research and construction by the late artist Chris Burden. The kinetic sculpture, modeled after Santos-Dumont’s 1901 design, is powered by a small aft propeller, and flies in a circle around the exhibit space once every 15 minutes. The Los Angeles Times reviewer Christopher Knight described it as “a lyrical, even ethereal sculptural poem to disembodied flight … ‘Ode to Santos Dumont’ can easily be seen as a melancholic but fully reconciled song from an artist who knew that mortality was approaching.” Burden died of cancer in May, at age 69, shortly before the exhibit opened.
Santos-Dumont experimented with many lighter-than-air designs, but the 1901 airship was considered the most successful, winning a prize for making a flight from Parc Saint Cloud in Paris around the Eiffel Tower and back. He also designed several fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter. Burden’s design is powered by a quarter-scale version of a 1903 De Dion gasoline motor, handcrafted by machinist and inventor John Biggs. The exhibit is open daily through Sunday, June 21.
