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The Contemporary Jewish Museum Presents Negev Wheel: Ned Kahn

The Contemporary Jewish Museum debuts an original kinetic sculpture, Negev Wheel, created by famed environmental artist and sculptor Ned Kahn (b. 1960, Connecticut).

Negev Wheel: Ned Kahn
Negev Wheel: Ned Kahn
A resident of the Bay Area for over thirty years, Kahn is well known for creating installation works at the intersection of art and science that explore, mimic, and play with phenomena found in nature, and for his many years as a designer of several of the Exploratorium’s most popular displays.

Negev Wheel is a colossal steel disk, twenty feet in diameter, that frames a reservoir filled with a mixture of glass beads and sand from Israel’s Negev Desert. As it spins, avalanching sand organizes into wave patterns suggestive of churning liquids. Often the two materials separate, each flowing in different ways. In the constant mixing, unmixing, and mixing again, Kahn creates a mesmerizing piece that invites contemplation of unity and complexity, change and permanence.

Alongside the larger sculpture, which is propelled by a motor, Kahn offers a second, smaller sand sculpture designed for public interaction.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco

Open daily (except Wed.): 11am–5pm and Thursday, 11am–8pm

$12 adults, $10 students and senior citizens with a valid ID, and $5 on Thursdays after 5pm. Youth 18 and under free.

Visit thecjm.org or call 415.655.7800