Ryan Mathern

Atlanta, Georgia

 

“Citipati” | Kinetic Fire Sculpture

Two metal figures, nine-foot tall skeletons forged and fabricated from gleaming steel, fearsome and flashing, dance above a stage ringed with footlights. An eighteen-foot high arch of fire frames them, spitting flame into the sky. These charnel lords are animated by the air and propane sent through their limbs and features: clattering, spinning, shrieking and rattling in their wrathful dance.

About the artist: Ryan Mathern graduated with a BA in art from Mercer University in 1992. For the past four years, he has been concentrating on steel sculpture, using a method involving adding virgin and reclaimed materials to a tubular steel substructure and steel rod framework. Mathern often combines phrases in Tibetan script with subject matter such as mythical creatures and Asian devotional machines.