Alumni to Watch

David Young with one of his many spheres.

David Young, (MFA Studio, '08) has had an exciting 2007-2008. In October 2007, he traveled with his mentor, art faculty member Jim White, to receive the International Sculpture Center's (ISC) 2007 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. The ISC is the world's leading international organization devoted to the creation and understanding of sculpture. Each year, it presents a recognition-award competition among college and university students to support the work of young sculptors.

One of only 20 student artists in the world to receive the prestigious award, Young won for his kinetic piece, Object in Motion. The sculpture consists of a 20-pound, cast-brass sphere on a wooden table set with sensors. The sensors are connected to pneumatic cylinders in each table leg, which automatically adjust the table's surface to keep the sphere in constant motion.

Originally studying to become an engineer, Young found he was more passionate about using his engineering skills to create art. He began experimenting with kinetics in one of his first spherical pieces, Object at Rest. The piece consists of a chair in which a cast sphere rotates, causing the piece to vibrate and hum. Young uses what he describes as his "closet engineer and physicist skills" to make his kinetic pieces work. In Object at Rest, he first used an aluminum sphere, but found that it did not create enough friction with the chair to maintain the ideal rotational speed and it would often pop out. He moved to brass for its heavier weight and ideal rotation.

Young has been working with spheres for most of his sculptural career.

"The sphere almost always references the unknown - that which is undefined, but has its own form. Everyone recognizes it but no one knows what it is," Young says. "When they look at the sphere, everyone imagines their own unknown. It becomes personal to them."

Young also feels the sphere is an integral element in sculpture as it reflects light and the surrounding environment, making the viewer think about the sculpture in relation to its space and its meaning.

"I like the simplicity of the sphere," he says. "I think of them as people, reflecting their conversations around the table or sitting in a chair and fidgeting."

Young's kinetic pieces were recently featured in the opening exhibition of the ASU Herberger College School of Art's Night Gallery at Tempe Marketplace. Night Gallery is a community project of the ASU Herberger College School of Art and the ASU Office for Community Engagement in partnership with the Tempe Marketplace.

David Young with his faculty mentor Jim White in front of the new ASU Herberger College
School of Art Night Gallery at Tempe Marketplace.