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Dazzling Ceiling Installation Creates Exquisite Form Using Miles of Thread

You wouldn't normally expect to see a dazzling, site-specific installation when you look up at the ceiling. But, in artist Gabriel Dawe's piece Plexus 27, thousands of rainbow-hued threads create an exquisite form that spans from the ceiling and onto the wall. Texas-based Dawe arranged and pulled the individual strings taut, giving the illusion that they're simply a projection of light. It's much more complex than that, though. Threads crisscross over one another, and Plexus 27 appears to change its shape depending on your vantage point. Sometimes, it looks like a three-dimensional funnel, while other times as flat bands of color radiating from the wall.

This enormous, shimmering 11 feet by 20 feet installation was recently on display at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas for their exhibition titled State of The Art. There, miles of string hung between hooks in the wall and ceiling.

If you're a regular reader of My Modern Met, you'll know that this isn't the first time we've admired Dawe's work. Check out his other incredible thread-based installations!

Gabriel Dawe website
via [My Amp Goes to 11]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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