Iron Man

Built for the 1988 Iron Man triathlon in Penticton BC. This is about the use, storage and conservation of energy. The sculptures structural components are an arrangement of timber frames that in profile depict the schematic drawing of a battery power source. A bicycle at one end pumps water from the 45 gallon drum up into the cylindrical storage tank above. as the water enters tangentially to the circumference, a whirl pool effect takes place. The water drains from the centre, down through a water wheel and into a trough. The water wheel rotates and causes a large swimming arm in the trough to do the crawl up and into the cyclists view corridor through the tunnel of the frames. The shape of the arm reiterates the contour of the distant hills at the far end of Okanagan Lake. Pumping very hard on the bike would cause the water to increase the whirl pool effect above and decrease the drainage, causing a slowing of the mechanism, yet storing more and more potential energy in the system. The exhausted and exasperated cyclist would stop… and as the water slowed, the drainage would speed up, thus the whole mechanism with the swimmer would accelerate, like a second wind. The energy would pace itself through the action and would then flow back down to the 45 gallon drum to start again.

13’ x 13’ x 24’ 1988 Penticton Art Gallery. It was to be permanently located on the southern shore of Okanagan Lake, but this never came to be.