In recent years Mr. Baechler has been experimenting with sculpture, and the show includes one irresistible example: A 10-foot-tall figure made of chicken wire, plaster and papier-mâché (soon to be cast into bronze).
Physical mathematical models include reproductions of plane and solid geometric figures made of cardboard, wood, plastic, or other substances; models of conic sections, curves in space, or three-dimensional surfaces of various kinds made of wire, plaster, or thread strung from frames; and models of surfaces of higher order that make it possible to visualize abstract mathematical concepts.
How the mighty do tumble, especially those made of chicken wire and plaster!
In that year Mr. Segal began making sculpture out of chicken wire and plaster.
It was then encased in chicken wire and plaster for protection, and finally entombed behind a fiberboard wall, where it remained hidden for nearly 20 years.
Made of timber, pipe, chicken wire, lath, plaster of paris and papier-mache, it was installed in 1908 and was 76 feet long.
In the 1960's he built a scale model of Martin, Ky., as big as a room, with mountains formed from chicken wire and plaster.
"Garbage Wall," made of trash, chicken wire, and plaster, and "Glass Bricks," made of melted beer bottles, proposed more durable alternatives to the cardboard architecture that he saw the homeless constructing.
In one gallery "Minos," a simple torsolike wall piece in gold leaf over chicken wire and plaster, from 1978, contrasts with the extravagant "Zanzidae, From the Peacock Series," a 1979 wall piece that incorporates glass and plastic in various forms and wouldn't look out of place at Mardi Gras or in Zeffirelli's production of "Turandot".
In "Fatal Attraction," the borderline psychotic played by Glenn Close lives (significantly) in an industrial building with exposed wiring, chipped plaster walls and a scary open-cage elevator.
For Beckett's 1961 production of Waiting for Godot, Alberto Giacometti designed a tree that was made with wires and plaster: a mere suggestion of a real tree.
