Client: Georgia Musems Inc.

Overview

Spirit of Speed welcomes visitors to the Savoy Automobile Museum.
It draws visitors through the expansive 37 acre showgrounds towards the entrance of this stunning building.
Its made from gleaming polished stainless steel and draws inspiration from vintage car hood ornaments.
It is 22 ft high x 40 ft long x 9 ft wide. It weighs around 8 tons.
Spirit of Speed is a mascot for the museum and embodies the essence of what car lovers come to the museum to see.
It provides a focal point and marks a place where people can connect to the cultural diversity of the automobile.

Goals

These were the goals of the client:
• design an artwork that would fit perfectly with the architecture of the museum building.
• draw visitors through the extensive grounds towards the museum entrance.
• indicate what visitors could expect to see inside.
• connect people to the cultural diversity of the automobile.
• create a focal point where people could meet and mark the outdoor space where events like car shows, swap meets, concerts and club gatherings would happen.
From a design perspective I took inspiration from the horizontal lines of the building.
I also looked at the use of building materials. A combination of bright metal and red panels. My design is seen against the red panels as the visitor approaches and the polished stainless-steel sculpture complements the bright metal walls. The sculpture design also reflects the mix of curves and straight lines in the building design.
The piece is elevated so it can be seen from the road and as visitors enter the grounds but also to provide a space underneath that gives shade and a place to gather.
All my outdoor public projects are site-specific. Every aspect of this artwork was considered to fit the purpose and design of it’s environment.

Process

I was invited by the Savoy Automobile Museum's designer Frank Bergman to submit ideas for a signature sculpture to complement his world class modern museum design.
The theme was simply automobiles.
I wondered what was the essence of the enthusiast's fascination with automobiles?
Movement, freedom and speed are key elements.
I studied a large selection of vintage hood mascots. Then I designed my own.
A female figure gracefully moving through space and time. Embodying the essence of movement, speed and freedom. Connecting the past, present and future of car culture. Connecting people.
My design was immediately accepted. I then made a very detailed model which I used to figure out engineering and fabrication issues.
I consulted with various colleagues in different countries in the sculpture fabrication field. Discussing different approaches to scaling up this complicated design. A project of this scale and with such tricky engineering was beyond what I could make in my studio. The only team that could fabricate this project the way I wanted it and to the quality that I demanded was an old friend in China that I had worked with in the past. I'm a perfectionist and controlled every detail of it’s production.