Numi Bridge

Larry Wolf, Bert Numi Bridge Design 1960s (2022)

Wolf, Numi
(2022)

This stringed structure was sitting in the back of the sculptor's studio, abandoned. He explained that it was a hyperbolic paraboloid, formed by running strings between two circles and then giving them a slight twist. I was transfixed. He said it was the turning point in his career when, submitted as the design for a bridge, he was told he was better suited for the arts. He offered it to me. I still have it some fifty-five years later. The slip of paper attached to the bottom surface with his name, Bert Numi, has long since disappeared.

I was in high school. It was an after school enrichment program, ostensibly art though also a throwback to the metal shop class I loved in seventh grade. I used an oxy-acetylene torch and an arc welder to create structures from junk yard steel. I rode in his MG-B with the top down. He told me about art happenings. Our lives went separate ways. I wonder where he is and what he's been doing.

Larry Wolf, Bert Numi Bridge Design 1960s (2022)