How fixed the Fixed Stars?

Wintry lucid rays
nail DIY creation
to the firmament


This is NAILS, by Peter Logan (1943-).

Commissioned in 1987 by a local DIY store, this sculpture stands beside the River Avon, the much under-promoted central thread running through Bath.

It is "a wind mobile sculpture made from lightweight polished aluminium. The lower nails rotate on a central pivot allowing the sculpture to face into the wind. The upper four nails have been balanced to rest horizontal in still air and the pressure of the wind upon the surface of the nails causes them to turn. In a good breeze the sculpture will reach a height of 41 feet and will come to rest at 31 feet if the wind completely drops."

I don't know if it still works; I've never seen it move but perhaps that's down to the impatience of the pedestrian in me trying to get to B from A. Anyway the engineer in me, if not also the artistic philistine, prefers the graceful, momentous yet pragmatic and dynamic beauty of a wind turbine in rhythmic, deterministic motion.

Aren't the winter light and the infinitely blue skies we're experiencing during this cold-snap so wonderful for photography?