Noli Timere, Vancouver, Canada, 2026
Description
Echelman created the monumental sculpture Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks for TED’s inaugural conference in Vancouver in 2014, and returned to close off the TED Conference’s time in Vancouver in 2026 with Noli Timere. Her 2011 TED talk "Taking Imagination Seriously" translated into 35 languages is the most viewed TED Talk by a sculptor.
The sculpture depicts two sculptural forms which touch at a single point, yet its fields of color wash from one form through the air into the other as if the space between them decreases to nothing. Echelman describes inspiration in artworks where spaces between things become charged, citing Picasso’s portraits of lovers and Michelangelo’s depiction of the space between the hands of God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel.
The artwork’s title is Latin for ‘don’t be afraid’ - the last words written by Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, written to his wife in the moments before his death. Artist Janet Echelman collaborated with Heaney early in her career when they were both in residence at the same house at Harvard University in the 1990s. Echelman describes the Noli Timere sculpture as an intimate inquiry into the relationship between fear and love. It is a visual exploration of the nature of separation, connection, and interdependence. Echelman’s traveling artwork Noli Timere premiered at the Palazzo del Senato during Milan Design Week 2023.
Materials and size
Hand-spliced UHMWPE (Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene), knotted and braided high-tenacity nylon and polyester, programmed LED lighting, DMX controller, historic architecture, custom-built reflection pool.
Installation dimensions: 88 ft. length x 42 ft. width x 29 ft. height
Dimensions of net: 73 ft. length x 28 ft. width x 12 ft. depth
Credits
Art: Janet Echelman
Studio Echelman: Danielle Efrat, Daniel Alexander Smith
Sculpture Engineering: SOM San Francisco: Alessandro Beghini, Nicole Wang
Client: TED
Installation: Riggit Services Inc.
Photography: Jason Redmond, Jasmina Tomic, Ryan Lash/TED
Location
TED Conference, Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, Canada