Page 36 - David Bermant Foundation

“I make machinesthat blow everlasting, upward moving, iridescent, huge, square soap bubbles. Oddly, I viewed these contraptions as science, not art. I thought MIT might be interested,so I approached the Institute a few days after meeting Davefor the first time. MIT asked, ‘How much?’I answered, ‘Thirty thousand dollars.’They said, ‘Can youget matching funds?’I asked Dave, and immediately he said, ‘Sure.’ He gave fifteen thousand. That was in 1980. MIT has had one of my sculptures in the lobby of their physics building ever since.”—James OssiJAMeS oSSiJames Ossi, born in 1947 in Wyckoff, New Jersey, graduated from the Parsons School of Design. While working in its research department, he created his first bubble sculptures. The bubble machine constructions were displayed in the fall of 1981 at the OK Harris Gallery in New York and have been seen on “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” TV program.35“[The Bubble Sculpture] is one of my very favorite pieces, and I kind of hide it away from everybody. It used to be in my sunroom in Rye overlooking water, a very glorious location. But we captured some of its glory by putting it here against the hill, which we’ve filled with some cacti. When it goes on, it’s magnificent.”