DRIFT Dallas sculpture by Gerry Judah, Texas landscape architecture installation, USA design art

DRIFT sculpture by Gerry Judah in Dallas, Texas

post updated March 30, 2024

Installation Design: sculpture by Gerry Judah

Location: Olympus crossroad to North Lake, Belt Line Road, near Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas, United States of America

Photos by Dan Sellers

Nov 27, 2020

DRIFT, 2020, Dallas, Texas

In Texas, the Belt Line Road stretches thirty miles in a straight line through the hills and valleys between Dallas and Fort Worth. If you pause at the Olympus crossroad to North Lake, you will find DRIFT, the latest sculpture by Gerry Judah, dazzling in the sun like the bleached bones of an ancient leviathan. The installation; cut, welded and ground from steel has its origins in the green fields of England and the mountains of New Zealand. It’s the latest in a series of sculptures exploring writhing, twisting forms assembled from stacks of steel blocks.

At 6.3 metres high and 13 metres long, DRIFT spreads horizontally, a counterpoint to Gerry Judah’s MAZDA, 2015 sculpture at Goodwood Festival of Speed, West Sussex, and JACOB’S LADDER, 2018 sculpture in the deep hills of Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park, New Zealand. Three hundred and ten steel blocks varying in thickness from 60mm to 140mm are carefully stacked, each at a slightly different angle to the one before, to form a gently flowing wisp, floating in the air like eighteen and a half tonnes of frozen steel smoke.

Built for a huge temperature range and high winds – being at the southern end of Tornado Alley – DRIFT was engineered to meet the most demanding American wind and seismic codes. The sculpture was designed, engineered, fabricated and painted in the United Kingdom and shipped to the United States in three custom-built crates ready for lifting and bolting on-site by a local US crew.

DRIFT was commissioned by Billingsley Company as an indelible gateway into The Sound at Cypress Waters community. “After being enchanted by JACOB’S LADDER, we sought out the artist and began a conversation with him regarding a site-specific sculpture for The Sound. We provided Mr Judah with topographical information and he became familiar with our landscape intentions. The sculpture he designed beautifully accommodates the complexities of the location; DRIFT provides a dynamic and gripping artistic foundation for this community,” said Billingsley Company Partner, Lucy Billingsley.

DRIFT sculpture by Gerry Judah in Texas – Installation Information

Client: BILLINGSLEY COMPANY
Artist: GERRY JUDAH
Engineers: DIALES
Fabricators: LITTLEHAMPTON WELDING

Photographer: DAN SELLERS

Gerry Judah Ltd · John Mark Cottage, Florentia Village · Vale Road · London, England N4 1TD · United Kingdom

DRIFT, Dallas, Texas sculpture by Gerry Judah images / information received from GJ 271120

Location: Dallas, Texas, TX, USA

Designs by Gerry Judah

Gerry Judah Designs on e-architect – selection:

Aston Martin Sculpture Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019

Porsche Sculpture at Goodwood Festival of Speed, 2018

photo : David Barbour

Central Sculpture for Goodwood Festival of Speed 2017

photo : David Barbour

Mazda Sculpture for Goodwood Festival of Speed 2015

photo : David Barbour

Lotus Sculpture for Goodwood Festival of Speed 2012

photo : David Barbour

Another sculpture by Gerry Judah – Jacob’s Ladder, New Zealand

Architecture in Texas

Dallas Buildings

Texas Architecture

Contemporary Texas Buildings – selection:

National Medal of Honor Museum, Arlington
Architecture: Rafael Viñoly Architects

image courtesy of architects
National Medal of Honor Museum

AISD Performing Arts Center, Austin
Architecture: Miró Rivera Architects

photography : Thomas McConnell and Miró Rivera Architects
AISD Performing Arts Center