MY " MOBILE HYDROMURAL "
by Gyula KOSICE

Since 1958 I have been using in my kinetic sculptures flowing water and water droplets on surfaces, and the motion of air bubble in water. Parts of the objects ahre made of transparent Plexiglas supported by plastic or aluminium components. Some of the objects have parts in various colors and some have interior elctric light sources.

One of my largest projects was the " Mobile Hydromural ", which was installed in 1996 at the Embassy Center, Galeria del Este, Buenos Aires, Argentina. An over all view of the mural, from above, is shown in Fig. 1 and details of it in Figs. 2 and 3. It is 16 m high and 6 m wide, with a water pool at its base to catch water flowing down the mural. At the bottom of the pool are two transmparent blue, Plexiglas hemispheres of 1.30 m dia. that are illuminated form within. There are also vibrators in the pool to produce ripples on the water surface.

The pannel of the mural is constructed of anodized aluminium of 4 mm thickness. This panel has 500 holes (15 and 20 mm dia.) drilled through it to contain short transparent Plexigla rods. One-third of the rods are cut at an angle and are distributed at random in seven groups. Revolving disks are mounted in front of the lights at the rear of the panel to throw beams of blue, orange, and green light onto the rods for producing a scintillating effect.

Three 130 cm dia. hemispheres are attached to the panel. The two upper ones are tipped at an angle of 35° from the vertical to allow water jetting into them to fall in a cascade into the pool below. The lower hemisphere contains water that is agitated by an air jet.

The mural panel is supported by a steel structure, 60 cm in depth. Behind the panel are installed 220 fluorescent light tubes, the revolving colored disks, ramps and an electric pump capable of circulating 3000 l/hr are provided. The water is changed when it has accumulated too much foreing matter.

A musical composition especially compose by Jorge Slullitel is played from tape during the operation of the mural. Thus my " Mobile Hydromural " integrates the motion of water and of colored light with music.

© ISAST

( This article was first published in Leonardo, Vol. 3, pp.437-438. Pergamon Press 1970. Printed in Great Britain)