Janet
Echelman
builds living, breathing sculpture
environments that respond to the forces of
nature — wind, water and light — and
become inviting focal points for civic life.
Echelman’s Story
Artistic Success Through Adversity
• Echelman applied to seven different art schools
& rejected by all seven.
• Travelled and studied art since 1987.
• Moved back to the USA in 1993 to teach at
Harvard when her bamboo house in Bali burned
down.
• In 1997 she received a Fullbright lectureship in
India.
•Echelman’s paints never
arrived.
•Inspired by the local
culture and materials she
began working with
bronze casters. This was
too heavy and expensive
for the Fullbright budget.
Echelman’s Story
• By the end of her Fulbright year,
Echelman had created a series of
netted sculpture in collaboration
with the fishermen. Hoisting them
onto poles, she discovered that their
delicate surfaces revealed every
ripple of wind.
• By 1997 Echelman established a
studio in New York city.
• With several temporary large scale
sculptures under her belt, in 2005
Echelman was commissioned her
first permanent piece in Portugal.
• Echelman now has multiple
installations and is featured in many
publications world wide.
The Context
• Echelman’s social implications are difficult to
define, but the scale and connectivity to nature
make her pieces a part of the landscape inspiring,
relaxing, and evoking emotion, conversation, and
visceral responses that may not normally occur.
• Today Echelman has constructed net sculpture
environments in metropolitan cities around the
world. She sees public art as a team sport and
collaborates with a range of professionals
including aeronautical and mechanical engineers,
architects, lighting designers, landscape
architects, and fabricators.
Echelman
by Day & Night
Vancouver, BC. March 2014
why Echelman?
Travels in Kerala
Kochi fishing nets
The Lesson
• Objectives: Learn and talk about Echelman and her creations.
• The Practical: learn how to make a net.
• The Artistic: experiment with netting expressing onself by creating shape,
texture, colour, and form.
• Relevance and interdisciplinary connections: connect to Vancouver, Social
Emotional connections with art. Rainbow Loom. & Survival skills.
• Resources for project: Net making books and or internet for different ideas
and how to guides.
• Materials: various types of string / rope to create netting. Potential
supports for particular shapes (hoops, coat hanger wire etc…). Tape, tacks
and other methods of holding up supporting string or material. Paper,
pencils (colour), to draw ideas.
Lesson 1 Overview
•The Hook
•Demonstrate how to make a basic net, how to make the
gaps smaller/bigger.
•Note to self: Practice First before demonstrating!
•Janet Echelman slide show
•Explain to students that today they will be making a net
from the demonstration and instructions.
•If students feel confident they are welcome to try
different techniques and be creative.
Water Sky Garden, Richmond, BC. 2010
Lessons Extensions
•Allow students to sketch their
own nets.
•Extend by drawing on previous
knowledge, books and internet
for weaving modifications.
•Students can work in groups to
create their own net sculptures.
•Display in school.
•Caveats – timing. How long will
this take for grade 6/7s?
Echelman in her New York Studio