Artwork Detail

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Drop-In Distraction

Artist: Ball-Nogues Studio

Medium: Nickel plated steel and brass bead chain

County Department: Public Works

Supervisorial District: 2

About the Artwork:

Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues of Ball-Nogues Studio created a suspended sculpture titled Drop-in Distraction for the Southwest Building and Safety Permit Office lobby. This is where engineers, architects and contractors apply for construction permits. Drop-in Distraction expresses the artists’ desire to blur art and architecture. Composed of over one thousand individual nickel and brass plated bead chains hanging from custom-made aluminum ceiling panels, the work exemplifies the artists’ experimental and inventive approach to sculpture. While lightweight and diaphanous, the sculpture has a voluminous and undulating presence intended to intrigue the waiting clientele.

About the Artist:

Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues of LA-based Ball-Nogues Studio, began their practice together after having met as Sci-Arc undergraduates. Prior to partnering in business, Benjamin Ball worked for several Los Angeles architecture firms including Gehry & Associates and Ramer Architecture, and Gaston Nogues worked as a product designer for Gehry Partners. As a Studio, Ball and Nogues have completed designs and installations for the New York Museum of Modern Art / P.S. 1, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and Materials & Applications. In the fall of 2008, they were invited to install their artwork, Echoes Converge, at the 2008 Architecture Biennial in Venice, Italy.