Campus Sculpture Tour

Steven Haas

BONSAI, 1999
Brushed aircraft aluminum
Suspended mobile
Commissioned for Grinnell College

A Japanese saying describes the art of bonsai—the ornamental miniaturization of trees—as combining “heaven and earth in one container.” Steven Haas’ Bonsai, a hanging mobile in Noyce Science Center, simultaneously shatters and suggests that concept. His Bonsai breaks free of traditional containers: suspended in space, it dangles tantalizingly in the air above the viewer. Rather than combining heaven and earth in a single container, Haas places his Bonsai directly in the heavens, hanging it from the ceiling. Delicately twisted, Bonsai’s stylized sections of branches, trunk, and roots also suggest heaven: its strange flatness presents a highly idealized tree. Its colors, a deep burgundy for the trunk and brushed aluminum for the branches and roots, further stylize the tree, removing it from a sense of realness or nature. But still his piece calls to the earth, interacting with the spaces that surround it. Convoluted roots and branches reach out and down in gentle curls. It moves softly, shifting lightly in its space as it responds to the air flow of the building. Its shadows sway, altering the linear space of the walls with the sweet coils of the tree and branches.

Bonsai provokes a delicate balance—not only of earth and heaven, but also of material and gravity. A mobile must be carefully constructed in order to hang and move gracefully. As Haas says in his artist’s statement, “It is a question of balance and compromise. Gravity and physics play major roles. Mobile making is an art with finite limits.” Haas uses these limits, but his finished works expand beyond them, moving in response to their environment and making that environment move with new energy. Bonsai illustrates Haas’ dedication to balance—of concept, of form, and of material.

Work Cited:
Czarnik, Matt. "Art in Motion." Advance-Titan. 27 Mar. 2002.
7 Mar. 2006. <http://www.advancetitan.com>.

About the Artist: Steven Haas’ sculptural work began with an interest in metallurgy in high school, and has progressed over 30 years toward a mastery of his tools and trade. In fact, over the course of his career, he has even created tools unique to him, including one object he refers to as his “secret tool,” which determines the point of balance on a vertical surface (“Art in Motion”). His mobiles and sculptures are in corporate, public, and private collections across North America and Europe.

Essay by Christine Hancock ‘06
2006