{"data":{"id":"7409","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":7409,"topgoose_id":830,"tms_id":7409,"display_name":"Sarah Sze","sort_name":"Sze Sarah","display_date":"1969–","begin_date":"1969","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eSarah Sze created \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/13375\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eStrange Attractor\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e for a specific site—the area in front of the massive window on the fourth floor of the Whitney Museum’s Marcel Breuer–designed building— as part of the \u003ca href=\"/exhibitions/biennial-2000\"\u003e2000 Biennial exhibition\u003c/a\u003e. Intended to be viewed both in the gallery and from Madison Avenue, seventy-five feet below, the sculptural installation veritably explodes into space, its hundreds of parts radiating in multiple directions, extending up even past the open grid of the ceiling. The work has an additional local resonance: Sze sourced all of the materials used in its making from the neighborhood around the Museum. They are ordinary objects— aspirin tablets, plastic spoons, balsa wood, metal ladders, and paper tickets—similar to items found in the artist’s other intricate, architecturally scaled constructions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOther elements render the arrangement dynamic: mirrors cause volleys of reflection; small whirring fans set bits of paper in motion; a humidifier dispenses steam; and water flows through a set of clear plastic tubes. These activities lend the work qualities of a delicate, organic ecosystem, in which interdependent parts change over time. (Sze’s title is a mathematical term, describing the pattern of behavior in a chaotic system.) Yet, in spite of the work’s subtle motion and initial sense of unruliness, \u003cem\u003eStrange\nAttractor\u003c/em\u003e registers a finely calibrated equilibrium. Sze’s installations are precisely planned and configured; as she has explained: “My sculpture is an intersection of painterly ideas about composition and architectural ideas about the use and structure of space.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500114674","wikidata_id":"Q3473432","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:52:54.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-10T07:02:36.665-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/7409/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/7409/exhibitions"}}}}