Storm Pattern
Thunderbird
Summer Dreams
2003. Bronze. Left to right: 29 x 27 x 25" (73.7 x 68.6 x 63.5 cm), 29 x 27 x 26" (73.7 x 68.6 x 66 cm), 30 x 27 x 25" (76.2 x 68.6 x 63.5 cm), Courtesy the artist and Cheim & Read, New York
These three fountains were named after the sunny titles given to specific nuclear explosions, and resemble the mushroom clouds that have filled the sky after nuclear attacks. “The explosions were beautiful . . . yet we know how menacing that beauty was,” Benglis notes. The artist is interested in moving past this association to explore the possibility that the works' abstract forms resemble something different and organic; perhaps even moss growing on rocks.