Warhol Museum - Storefront Display
March 2021 - June 2021
The Andy Warhol Museum was contracted by the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art to assemble an exhibit for their locations in Beijing and Shanghai. As part of this installation we needed to construct a replica of one of Andy Warhol’s storefront window displays which he had orignally produced in the 1950’s for the Bonwit Teller department stores in New York City. Sadly none of these advertisements survived to the modern day but two other replicas have been created that of “Bonwit Loves Replique” and Bonwit and Miss Dior
Fabrication for this project took place over the 2018 calendar year and was initially assembled in the Iontank studio. One factor complicating this build was that the building where the Grove would be permanently installed was still under construction while
Digital prototyping allowed us to get a sense of the assembly and aesthetics without needing to take time and materials to create physical prototypes.
One early change that was made after discussions around digital prototyping was to alter the steel counterweights on the rear of the branches. This component, designed to reduce strain on the motors, the assembly could weight as much as 40 pounds. When installed these parts would be hanging 11 - 26 feet in the air. The design was altered to one that would result in a more complex installation process but provided a more secure attachment in the event of seismic events or catastrophic failure.
The parts that would take the longest and wind up being the biggest headache were the 3/4 Steel and Aluminum counterweights. Here are the proofs waterjet from 3/4" aluminum which fit together flawlessly. We would later encounter tolerance issues
The "Foliage Supports" act as the rigid aluminum spine for the printed acrylic "Leaf Panels". It was laser cut from 3000 series aluminum and bent on a metal brake. 100 of these parts were made, mirror images of each other 50 left, 50 right. This part also gave some fine adjustability to the counter-balance of the branch as it could be adjusted fore or aft once installed in the tree with the leaf panels attached.
Once the metal parts had been commissioned by local fabricators we got to work machining the branch "Limbs" from 1/2" Puma-Plywood. All substrate for this project needed to by fire retardant to match building standards.
Some parts were veneered in house other we hired additional help, this job was too big to be handled by our small team alone.
The "Foliage Supports" act as the rigid aluminum spine for the printed acrylic "Leaf Panels". It was laser cut from 3000 series aluminum and bent on a metal brake. 100 of these parts were made, mirror images of each other 50 left, 50 right. This part also gave some fine adjustability to the counter-balance of the branch as it could be adjusted fore or aft once installed in the tree with the leaf panels attached.