James Seawright

[1] As a boy, he discovered machine tools at a friend’s house, which launched his lifelong love of making objects by hand.

Later, when serving in the United States Navy, he pursued every available opportunity to work with new tools and materials, gravitating toward the machine shop on his ship and the hobby shops on the base, where he made furniture.

[2] When he moved to New York in 1961, Seawright prowled Canal Street for the electronic parts that proliferated after World War II.

Inspired by the Bauhaus movement, which he said, “was doing revolutionary things with light even before the war,” he realized that he could “use modern electronics and controlled technology to apply to sculpture.” Seawright became a pioneer of interactive sculptures, using mirrors and electronic components in his work.

[3] Mirror XV, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, is an example of this phase of his work.