10,000 Hours - La Grande Vitesse

Laura Isaac

interdisciplinary art - installation, performance, & mixed media

The Adoration curatorial team asked me to create an intervention with La Grande Vitesse by Alexander Calder. Inspired by his strong sense of line, famous mobiles, and early wire works, I proposed to create a temporary web over and around the existing structure of the sculpture. Ten hand-knitted ropes crossed over the top of the sculpture, moving in the breeze, echoing the forms and contours of La Grande Vitesse. At various points throughout the day the sunlight cast shadows from the ropes out and around the sculpture. I invited the public to step through the work and explore for the duration of the installation.


10,000 Hours - La Grande Vitesse is one work in my 10-years-long project 10,000 Hours in which I’m exploring the theory that it takes ten thousand hours of directed practice to become a master at something; in this case, knitting. The ropes for 10,000 Hours - La Grande Vitesse took approximately 190 hours (2% of the 10,000 Hours journey).


Click on the links below to see more about this project:


- Project Statement -

- Installation Photos -

- Concept Sketches -

- Project Sponsors -


Thank you to Dark Horse Yarns LLC and

The Studio Knitting and Needlepoint Kansas City

for providing the yarn and knitting needles

for 10,000 Hours - La Grande Vitesse!


10,000 Hours - La Grande Vitesse (#10kLGV)  presented as part of the 2012/13 Season for

Kianga Ellis Projects: Art, Only Social.