Lapping at the Peak

Integrating complex digital computation with traditional textile patterning techniques, Lapping at the Peak is the latest in the series of hanging artworks that Ball-Nogues calls Suspensions. It reflects the artist’s interest in reshaping architectural space with a minimal use of material to make ghostly three-dimensional paintings.

This work is comprised of approximately 19000 individual pieces of stainless steel ball chain, totaling almost 16 miles in length. Each chain has been meticulously painted, measured and cut to length to form “catenaries” suspended from the lobby ceiling at the Ent Center for the Arts. The weight of the individual chains creates a complex system of overlapping catenary curves on which the artists carefully composed three colors.

When viewed from particular vantage points, the ephemeral array of chains have recognizable geometric forms; when viewed from other directions, they blur to resemble a fluid-like vapor that floats and lingers overhead.

Commissioned for the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and the citizens of Colorado for the Art in Public Places Program, it is the only permanent public artwork on view at the Ent Center for the Arts.