This is a job we were commissioned to undertake by Ronis Fine Art in 2008, where we were asked to install a 600 lb “stabile” sculpture (essentially a mobile that doesn’t move), into a 40 foot high ceiling in an outdoor foyer in Downtown San Diego.

The piece needed to be lifted from the delivery truck on 10th Street, where we had to close off traffic, then moved around the corner of the building and lifted up to a plate attached to the ceiling, where it was bolted/welded into place.

To accomplish this, we created a heavy duty yoke to rest the top of the sculpture into, then padded and secured the piece to the outside of the biggest scissor lift we could find. We had discussed with the job site engineers using cranes, cherry pickers and other such machinery to get the sculpture up to the ceiling plate.

But because we had to align the mounting plate on the piece with the one in the lid, and then mechanically attach both together with 12 threaded bolts, we decided that the lift had the most control and stability, while giving us the ability to be right up there with the piece to attach it.

The degree of difficulty in aligning 12 3/4″ diameter holes on a 600 lb sculpture hanging off the side of a lift, 40 feet in the air, is something that defies definition. It took every bit of our patience and skill to bring this one to completion.