Ovalle's La Tormenta (The Storm)

In his large-scale sculpture, La Tormenta (The Storm), Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle employs the form of a storm cloud to draw associations between natural and manmade systems. The unbound movements, pervasive impact and mutability of weather patterns are apt metaphors for such complex and interconnected subjects as politics, economics, technology, time, identity, culture and history. To create this work, Manglano-Ovalle collaborated with architect Doug Garofalo and the Department of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Using data obtained by DAS during a cloud study, Manglano-Ovalle and Garofalo translated it into a virtual model at 1:6,187 scale. Each resulting twin form is the contour of the storm’s core as it responded to internal and external forces over the span of a split second.