..."Wooden Screw," a large wooden device that moves in what appears to be a very
purposeful motion driven by an enormous, very precise wooden screw. But...it does
little but entertain."
Pat Craig, The Contra Costa Times.
|
Wooden Screw
120" x 192" x 24"
fir, steel, electric motor, bearings
1974
|
| |
A giant, wooden, motorized worm gear slowly drives two large wooden wheels.
The vertical wooden screw rotates, driving two large wooden wheels. This kind of
screw is often called a worm gear.
"...[Wooden Screw] keeps and amiable awkwardness in its operation too.
Given the possibility for error in the choice of pairing seven- and
eight-armed rotors,
making these rotating elements, which flank the central screw, mesh just right
into the screw-grove is a considerable feat.
But Tuck characteristically allows
the piece to lampoon his own ingenuity.
The rotors are mounted on wheels so that,
after a certain amount of time, combined effects of small irregularities of the
meshing will move a rotor slightly away from the screw, necessitating a slight
push to put the rotor back into place.
All's well, the piece emits a reassuring
clunking sound, to tell us that its mechanism is still at work."
Jeffrey Wechsler, Catalog for Rutgers Exhibition.
Wooden Screw has been exhibited at:
1999 Art Machines, Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul.
1996 Art Machines, Inventure Place, Akron, OH.
1994 Art Machines, The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA.
1993 Art Machines, Technorama Museum, Winterthur, Switzerland
1991 Mindless Mechanisms, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, N.C.
1978 Contemporary Artists Series, Rutgers University Gallery, New Brunswick
1978 Fine Arts Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.
1974 O.K. Harris Gallery, New York, N.Y.
