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Ripples by Athena Tacha
Photo CreditPhoto courtesy of McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Laboratory, Inc.
Ripples
Photo CreditPhoto courtesy of McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Laboratory, Inc.

Ripples

Artist
Year1979
Classification sculpture
Medium concrete
Dimensions3 x 30 x 80 ft. (91.4 x 914.4 x 2438.3 cm)
Credits Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location
  • Athena Tacha described the inspiration for her artwork Ripples during an oral-history interview conducted in 2009 by Avis Berman for the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art:

    "It's a kind of stylization of waves on the surface of water...because that's exactly what this inspiration came from: sand ripples and water ripples. People can walk on [the artwork], up and down. And the up and downs create a field of perception—both visual and kinesthetic—with the body, that is like dance in a way, that creates awareness about our body's existence in space and how we function through gravity and through our limbs adapting to gravity. I was using straight lines and diagonals, opening and closing like fans, but with the ups and downs alternating."
  • "Ripples" is a series of white concrete steps, encompassing an area of 30 feet wide by 80 feet long, with steps varying in height up to 3 feet.