This week I reinstalled Suspended Animation at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa. The work has been an ongoing project since 1995 when it was created for Weather Works, a show juried by Phil Linhares at 600 Townsend Street in San Francisco.

The original piece was made from sail cloth scraps provided by Buena Vista Kite Company owner Peter Werba. Since then, Peter and I have redesigned and reworked the kite sails to accommodate challenges of site and climate. We moved to a sturdier fabric and separated the cells to allow more freedom of movement. This year we added a mesh vent to slow the piece’s rapid rotation in gusty Napa winds.

Artist Dan Grayber’s has applied his considerable fabrication skills to Suspended Animation’s rigging, once again maintaining his custom design and helping me install in the sculpture meadow.

I bring damaged wire cable to Hugh Yoder at Carpenter Rigging to ask for solutions. His most recent response was, “too much torque - you need a swivel,” which explains the new addition to the right top tier, where, due to the topography of the site, the winds are strongest.

These efforts were necessitated by damage to Suspended Animation in recent years. Had the weather changed during this time? I asked meteorologist Ron Baskett who kindly provided me with a formal analysis and this statement: “At Napa County Airport, for the last 5 years high wind periods have increased over the last 30-year average. In 2019 there was 25% more and in 2020 50% more hours of winds greater than 25 mph than the 1990-2020 average of 31 hours per year.”

I don’t know if our latest efforts will prove successful against the mighty Napa winds, but do know I’m grateful for the group that helps me grapple with the problem.