Ferris Wheel
James Harold Jennings
American, 1931–1999
Details
Title
Ferris Wheel
Artist/Maker
James Harold Jennings (American, 1931–1999)
Date
1980s
Medium
Paint on wood
Dimensions
40 × 37 × 5 inches
Credit
Gift of Phil and Lisa Gilbert
Accession #
2016.542
James Harold Jennings transformed his property in Pinnacle, North Carolina, into an art environment to display his signs, sculptures, and embellished fences. Jennings fused Appalachian carving traditions with imagery drawn from popular culture, including National Geographic Magazine and drive-in movies. At the base of this kinetic sculpture, Jennings appears as a crowned figure, flanked by the Statue of Liberty and one of the old school buses he kept on his property. Although wind no longer blows his Ferris wheel into motion, Jennings’s use of high-contrast colored dots animates the sculpture through visual vibrations.