"When I was growing up, a poster for Calder's Circus hung in my aunt's living room. Her home was filled with exquisite things, but to me this picture of a lion with a sunburst of a head, made of yarn and fabric, balanced on a spindly wire body, was by far the most excellent. I can't remember a time when Calder's Circus wasn't a part of my visual imagination."
"Calder was inspired to create the circus after attending a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show at Madison Square Garden in 1925 to illustrate an article for the National Police Gazette (on view here), and spending two weeks studying the performers at the Ringling Bros. training grounds in Sarasota, Florida. He moved to Paris the next year, where he began to fabricate his own circus props and players from wire and wood armatures embellished with fabric."
Calder's Circus is a kinetic ensemble of small figurines and props constructed mostly from wire, cork, wood, and textiles between 1926 and 1931. The cast includes a lion, ringmaster, sword-swallower, trapeze artist, tightrope walker, belly dancer, elephants, camels, and many more characters with specific garments and gestures. Inspiration came from a 1925 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show and two weeks of study at Ringling training grounds in Sarasota. The Whitney acquired the complete circus in 1982 and is presenting it alongside large wire sculptures, the five travel suitcases, and a film of Calder mobilizing the performers.
Read at Hyperallergic
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