Taipei 101, one of the world’s 10 tallest buildings, was designed as a record-setter. Opening in 2004, it was then the world’s tallest building. Its elevators set new speed records, transporting passengers 84 floors in 37 seconds — in effect, traveling at the speed of a car (37.7 mph).
By 2011, the building had attained three additional world records: tallest (509 meters), largest (about 150,000 sq. meters), and highest-use (90 tenants) green building. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded Taipei 101 its top honor, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum ranking.
Two years later, Taipei 101 faced a new challenge. Cables for its super-speedy elevators wore out and needed to be changed frequently for safety. Seeing an opportunity for innovation, Taipei 101 approached a leading Taiwanese sculptor, Kang Muxiang, with an unusual request – can you repurpose expired elevator cables as art?
Sculptor Kang Muxiang at work. ©Kung Muxiang 2021. Courtesy of the artist.
At first glance, Kang might have seemed an unusual choice for this assignment. Like his forebears, he had been a traditional woodcarver since the age of 13. But Kang had also spent a year living a solitary, primitive life on an uninhabited island off Taiwan’s coast. That hiatus had endowed him with a strong respect for nature. Environmental protection became his major theme. The Taipei 101 project enabled him to give several thousands pounds of waste new life as works of beauty. Soon expired steel and copper cables became his material of choice.
Kang Muxiang, Regeneration, 2016. Stainless steel cable. Edition 6. Dimensions: 86.6” v 52.3” x 62.9”. ©Kung Muxiang 2016. Courtesy of the artist with support from the Taiwan Land Development Corporation. Photo: George Chevalier.
Six of Kang’s monumental sculptures are now on view outdoors through February 28 in Rebirth: Kang Muxiang, an exhibition at Grounds For Sculpture’s 42-acre park. Though the sculptures vary in size, all are massive. The largest stands 10 feet tall and weighs several thousand pounds. Each is formed from a single cable, a metaphor for the common thread that connects us to each other and to our world. Beautiful, organic, graceful, and tranquil, the sculptures’ rounded forms evoke a surprising sense of softness for sculptures made of steel or copper.
Kang Muxiang, Ignore Me, 2017. Renewed steel cable. Edition 6. Dimensions: 55” x 70.8” x 59”. ©Kung Muxiang 2017. Courtesy of the artist with support from the Taiwan Land Development Corporation. Photo: George Chevalier.
It is hard to imagine a more appropriate setting for this spectacular art. “Kang’s themes of adaptive reuse and re-imagination align with our evolution from a once-abandoned fairgrounds to the Grounds For Sculpture of today,” says Gary Garrido Schneider, Executive Director of the sculpture park. “It also honors the long history of our region, when nearly 200 years ago … [the nearby Roebling Works] created the cables that still support the Brooklyn, George Washington and Golden Gate bridges.”
Kang Muxiang, Ru-yi Life, 2015 (detail). Renewed steel cable. Edition 6. Dimensions: 118” x 84.6” x 57”. ©Kung Muxiang 2015. Photo: Peter Handler
Grounds For Sculpture is located at 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton, NJ, on the former site of the Trenton Speedway. The park is open daily (except Tuesdays and Wednesdays) from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. Entry is by advance timed ticket only.
