*David (Red Study)**, Boston, MA, 2026*

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Description

Now on view — A Sky Full of Hope

Earthtime 1.78 Frankfurt is part of the Earthtime series which explores the interconnection of sky and earth, flexibility and strength, humans and our physical world, and heightens our awareness of our interconnectedness with one another and our physical planet. The sculpture serves as a symbol of interconnectedness, composed of countless intertwined fibers. Each time a single knot moves in the wind, the location of every other knot in the sculpture’s surface is changed in an ever unfolding dance of human-made creation with the forces of nature beyond our control.

Frankfurt is home to residents from 178 nations. This diversity forms the conceptual starting point of the sculpture. The net represents the principle that underpins both the artwork and the city itself: connection creates stability.

For Earthtime 1.78, a new color palette was developed. Warm and cool tones are deliberately balanced, pointing toward a sustainably designed future. The equilibrium of colors symbolizes both the interplay of diverse cultural perspectives and the relationship between humankind and the natural world.

Konstablerwache — a place of transit, encounter, and friction — becomes the stage for a “living sculpture” that continually evolves through light, movement, and public use. Accompanying formats encourage dialogue, participation, and appropriation. In this way, the project contributes to the long-term spatial, social, and cultural transformation of public space.

To create the sculptural form, Echelman works with teams both inside and outside her studio. These include architects, designers, and model-makers in the studio, as well as an external team of aeronautical and structural engineers, computer scientists, lighting designers, landscape architects, and a fabrication team.

Inside Echelman’s studio, the physical form of Earthtime 1.78 was digitally modeled with inspiration from a scientific data set describing a single geological occurrence -- an earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011 -- which caused ripple effects around the globe and even sped up the earth's daily rotation. The number in the title refers to a measurement of time, as the earth’s day was shortened by 1.78 microseconds.

Sculpture fabrication begins with braiding custom engineered fibers which are fifteen times stronger than steel by weight. These custom-colored twines are knotted both by loom and by hand, and every rope is spliced using centuries-old craft techniques. Connecting the past with the present, the artwork takes ancient methods to a new urban scale.

The Earthtime series is a global traveling project. To date, the Earthtime 1.78 sculpture has been installed in Madrid, Spain (2018), Dubai, UAE (2018), Beverly Hills, CA (2019), Borås, Sweden (2021), Helsinki, Finland (2021), Vienna, Austria (2021), and Milan, Italy (2022). Each installation has unique colored lighting designed to speak with its specific architectural and historic context.

Credits

Artist: Janet Echelman
Studio Echelman Team: Daniel Alexander Smith, Anisha Chakrabarty, Svetlana Stepanova, Danielle Efrat, Vivian Tran, Maria Cazzato
Rope Fabrication Specialist: Marc St-Antoine, Dominic Clement
Photography: Svetlana Stepanova