Continuum: Towards A Final Destination

Is it a bird or a plane? Maybe. Sitting atop a pedestal in front of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is the abstract sculpture Continuum, 1976, by Charles O. Perry, known for his public art installations located at buildings, universities, and parks. The monumental bronze sculpture was commissioned by the Museum for its bicentennial opening in 1976. Continuum is typically described as a Möbius strip, a star shooting through a black hole, a design inspired by geometry, or the continuous flow of the universe. Not everyone agrees on the meaning of the sculpture, thus, the nature of subjectivity and art. While some visitors may not appreciate the sculpture or the artistic talent involved in creating it, Perry’s work has been lauded, exhibited worldwide in public spaces and art museums, sold as jewelry by Tiffany, and earning him a prestigious Prix de Rome (Rome Prize) from the American Academy in Rome.  In my analysis of Continuum, I propose the sculpture summons the movement of a flight path and is a perfect sculpture for its site-specific location outside the entrance of the Museum.

A continuous flow of twists and turns that loop into symmetrical design patterns comprises the sculpture’s form. Bronze metal is curved at various widths, but all flatten to a thinner edge on the exterior sides, reminiscent of the leading edge of a wing on an aircraft or rocket fin. When viewed from the side, one of the design patterns of Continuum reveals a forward-moving shape with a central body and two sides or wings. The solid black wax coating on the bronze sculpture against the color of the Museum’s stone exterior or the sky embraces the “air” and “space” negative areas to create the overall design. Gravitational pulls in airflow can be interpreted through the cylindrical outlines of the form with their vertical upward and downward configuration. When tracing the path of the bronze, the sculpture takes on the movement of the turns and barrel rolls performed in aerobatic flight patterns.

So, at first glance, the abstract nature of the sculpture could appear disconnected from the Museum. But as described in my analysis above, the installation or placement of Continuum relates directly to the Museum’s content. Even more so, the “air and space” concept integrated into the design refers to the name of the building.

The location of the installation serves a secondary fundamental purpose. Interestingly, the sculpture is not centered within the entrance doors. Instead, Continuum is centered directly with the middle of 6th Street SW, with the road serving as an approach or “runway” leading to the sculpture. This location implies that Perry considered the oncoming moving vehicle or walking pedestrian spectator to facilitate a “kinetic” encounter with the subject.

In art historian Miwon Kwon’s article “One Place After Another: Site-Specific and Location Identity,” she asserts that public art falls into three categories: “Plop art,” typically a contemporary sculpture out of place with its background environment; urban sculpture or street furniture; or sculpture that foregrounds a social or political activity or a community-engaged collaboration. Continuum complicates Kwon’s categories. The sculpture explicitly uses the environment of the street and the light color of building material to offset the black-coated bronze and create the “air and space” of the design, and the Museum’s content to reinforce the subject of the work. The merging of the street, building, Museum content, and sculpture lead the spectator to experience flight conceptually, visually, and physically by moving towards the sculpture from a “runway” into the Museum.

Continuum recently underwent extensive conservation treatment at our Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Conservation of the sculpture included cleaning, removal of an aged wax coating, resolving worn areas of the patina, and applying a final application of a new black wax coating. Continuum is now back on display in its original location, ready to greet National Air and Space Museum visitors.