The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air - Audio Tour Clip #5: Using different types of wire

This is an audio clip from a cell phone tour by Guide by Cell to accompany the exhibition The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air at the Japanese American National Museum from March 10 - May 27, 2007. Ruth Asawa is a well-known and talented artist, specializing in woven wire art pieces. She is one of the most influential women artists of the 20th century.

This clip was narrated by Karin Higa, Senior Curator of Art at the Japanese American National Museum, in March 2007.

Transcription
Ruth Asawa used different types of wire in her sculpture, in part because each metal had a slightly different characteristic that she could exploit in creating the sculpture. They also had different color, and you can see in the gallery here how she’s able to contrast the slight variations of the wire in the sculptures to create a sort of dynamic sculpture in space.

Another thing to remember is that this wasn’t the kind of wire that you could buy at the hobby store, but rather wire for industrial purposes, either for businesses or contractors. So she would buy these gigantic spools of wire in part because she never really knew when was going to make them, how big or small the final product would be, and it was really important for her to have a single strand of wire.