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Poetry in Motion is a playful ball machine sculpture with an animal-theme that is inspired by a series of seven poems. Poets include Matsuo Basho and Ogden Nash. The ball machine serves to bring these poet's work to life. 

The machine includes whimsical devices such as an orange hammer bell, yellow pin board, red loop-the-loop, and swirling helices. It also has three randomizing pendulums with painted images of a fish, turtles, and a bright red cardinal. Balls hop down a series of green wood block frogs, slink through a snake kinky tube, and are grabbed by the mouth of a nodding dragon and dropped onto a track below. The colorful animals pop against the white track and blue background.

 

This ball machine was designed by George Rhoads in collaboration with Rock Stream Studios.

Date:

2004

Location:

Comer's Children's Hospital, Chicago, IL

Dimensions:

7' x 2' x 7'

Artist:

George Rhoads

Poetry in Motion

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Creative Machines Inc.

4141 E. Irvington Rd.

Tucson, Arizona 85714

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our Creative Machines shop is located on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odham Nation. We are nestled in the heart of Tucson, Arizona, a vibrant, culture-rich city, both presently and historically. This land was home to some of the earliest people in North America, the Hohokam, and we honor and respectfully acknowledge the indigenous nations that have stewarded this land since time immemorial. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the Tohono O’odham and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.

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