As far as modern sculpture goes, many people often say that the visual impact goes as far as the eye can see. For Len Lye, "as far as the eye can see" was literal. In 1999, he created an astounding 45 meter fibreglass sculpture called The Wind Wand. This elongated contemporary public sculpture holds a globe at the end of its long tube. This sphere glows red at night time because it contains over a thousand light-emitting diodes inside it. As a whole sculpture, The Wind Wand can bend its vertical orientation to sway with the natural air currents. Its maximum bend can go to over 20 meters even if it weights around 900kg. This is because aside from fibreglass, its structure is also entwined with carbon fiber, a very durable, yet flexible modern material used in things like helicopter blades and automotive elements.
This sculpture is an unusual beacon both in the daylight and in the evening. Contemporary sculptures don't always need to maintain an out-of-this-world level of complexity, just a sense of original idea that affects how people experience it. This simple vertical installation isn't the most groundbreaking idea in the history of art, nor is it comparable to the aesthetic structure of the bird's nest stadium at the Beijing olympics, but it makes us stop and take a look. It makes people wonder why someone would install such a sculpture and how he came about doing so. Contemporary art means art that inspires a certain kind of human curiosity that we all smile at in one way or another. It is the art of making things different from the ordinary.
