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Sand Machine

David MedallaWW-1963-147875

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace and Mara Coson Gifts, 2025

Catalogue

Year
1963
Dimensions
25 1/2 × 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in. (64.8 × 60 × 60 cm)

Artist

David Medalla
David Medalla

David Medalla was a Filipino artist and kinetic sculptor who created motorized and hand-operated installations that explored the relationship between movement, chance, and human intervention. Working primarily with mixed materials, his sculptures incorporated motors, balloons, sand, and found objects to produce unpredictable, participatory environments. Active from the 1960s onward, Medalla developed a practice centered on process and impermanence rather than fixed form, often inviting audience engagement as part of the work's completion. His kinetic investigations positioned him within postwar experimental sculpture movements that questioned the autonomy and immobility of the art object.

Manila, Philippines

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Cloud Canyons and Some Reflections on the Random in Life and Art

Cloud Canyons and Some Reflections on the Random in Life and Art

1963 · Ink on three sheets of paper (each recto and verso)

WW-1963-M121803