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Documented artwork / suspended kinetic installation

Lift

Aurora Robson

Credit as documented: Aurora Robson

Aurora Robson's Lift was commissioned for Rice University's Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center in Houston. The 2009 installation uses approximately ten thousand discarded plastic bottles and three thousand bottle caps around steel supports. Rice describes suspended forms resembling an orbital system, with spherical and comet-like objects rotating slowly. Solar energy powers the movement, and the artist describes illumination between dusk and dawn. The sources count the assembly differently: Rice calls it five suspended sculptures, while Robson identifies seven individual components.

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Documented work. Current availability, ownership and installation requirements must be confirmed with the artist.

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Verified artwork image for Lift
Verified artwork imageImage: aurorarobson.com ↗Photographs courtesy of Marshall Coles and Rice University (as credited at source)

At a glance

Year / version
2009
Materials
post-consumer PET bottles, PP and HDPE bottle caps, steel armature, tinted polycrylic (artist) / polyacrylic (Rice), aluminum rivets and washers, solar-powered LEDs, rotator motors
Documented setting
unknown
Dimensions
Artist: 40 × 18 × 16 ft; largest orb approximately 13 ft around (wording retained).
Dimensions apply to
Source measurements for the documented work only; component scopes, unlabeled axes and disagreements remain explicit. Not a relocation or engineering specification.
Availability
Unconfirmed

Places & versions

Installation history

Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.

  1. 2009

    Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas

    Site
    Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center, Rice University
    City
    Houston
    State / region
    TX
    Country
    United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)

    Installation details checked 2026-10-17.

    Installation source

Materials and construction

The artist publishes overall dimensions of 40 by 18 by 16 feet and describes the largest orb as approximately thirteen feet around. The count and measurement scopes are preserved without conversion.

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Sources