Otter Mobile
Nancy and Joseph Bower, Martha's Vineyard, Mass
Sheet steel   9’ Depth
Installed August 12, 1992

While swimming in Janes Cove in Martha’s Vineyard, my husband and I found ourselves surrounded and swimming with half a dozen river Otters. At first I was very nervous, but after a while they appeared to be quite harmless and even friendly.

When I was commissioned to do a sculpture for a cathedral roofed home on the Vineyard, I decided that an otter mobile was the appropriate thing to create.

By chance there are air ducts heating and cooling the home where the mobile is hung, so when the ducts are on, they produce just enough air to turn the otters so they appear to be playing with each other.