Sand Machine
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)
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Artist
- David Medalla
Artist

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.
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Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- David Medalla
- Year
- 1963
- Dimensions
- 25 1/2 × 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in. (64.8 × 60 × 60 cm)
- Watts ID
- WW-1963-147875
Source
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Source
- met
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified
