Monumental sculpture for Portuguese port.
A large-scale sculpture by Janet Echelman will soon be inaugurated near Porto on the Atlantic coast in northern Portugal. A $1.66-million European Union commission, the sculpture, titled She Changes, is a giant multi-layered circular net suspended in air. It was the artist's intention to create a monumental work that would not block ocean views.
Situated above an oval beach-front plaza, the sculpture is approximately 150 feet in diameter and 14 stories high. Attached by cables to three steel poles of varying heights up to 150 feet, a 20-ton steel ring supports the netting, which is made of resilient, nearly indestructible red and white architectural fiber. While the net alone weighs one ton, the piece is entirely porous and flexible; it will sway with the ocean winds.
The artist collaborated on the project with Portuguese landscape and lighting designer Eduardo Souto Moura. In a nod to the city's past as a small fishing village as well as to its current status as a large industrial center, the work resembles not only a huge fishing net but also, from a distance, an enormous transparent jellyfish, a flying saucer or a futuristic structure.