African Design Magazine October 2014 | Page 25

News Launch of Africa’s largest kinetic sculpture Africa’s largest kinetic sculpture, ‘The Creovator’, was recently officially launched at the WesBank head office in Johannesburg, South Africa. Weighing over two tonnes, this amazing piece of art stands 12m tall. It has 18 custom cast balls running along more than one kilometre of metal track and is activated by two motors driving two chains, each of which are 23 metres long. It took a team of more than 70 people to conceptualise, design and shape it over six months. This magnificent machine was carefully designed and crafted by sculptor Etienne de Kock. “I was honoured to be a part of such an exciting brief from a brave client. After hundreds of hours spent planning and building this piece of art, I was proud to see it officially ‘switched on.” De Kock specialises in large scale public sculptures and has successfully concluded works for the King Abdullah University of Technology Museum, Saudi Arabia; Islamic Science and Technology Museum in Istanbul, and the ‘Sultans of Science’ – an exhibition which travelled to the USA and Canada. De Kock has also been involved in diverse corporate work both locally and abroad. De Kock graduated from University of Pretoria with a BA in Fine Art (Sculpture and Graphics). He is currently busy with his master’s degree in Industrial Design through CPUT. The Creovator machine will stand in the iconic WesBank head office foyer until 2016 and beyond, to serve as a ‘living’ barometer. WesBank’s CEO, Chris de Kock, noted that, “The machine represents WesBank’s innovative approach to launching and making relevant the new Shared Values for each and every WesBanker. The purpose is to shift the organisational culture in order to achieve and track number of ambitious long term objectives. It is a tangible and impressive ex