Dan Grayber, an artist based in California, builds intricate structures that do nothing but hold themselves up. Photo: Dan Grayber

He's currently showing a collection of pieces at Johansson Projects in Oakland, California. Photo: Dan Grayber

In 2004, Grayber began a several-year inquiry into mechanisms that clung to walls in one way or another--contraptions that used springs and weights and counterweights to claw their way into gallery drywall. Photo: Dan Grayber

In 2008, he built a spring-loaded gizmo that wedged itself inside a glass vitrine. That one felt right, and he's been doing variations on the theme ever since. Photo: Dan Grayber

Grayber is a master of tension--both physical force and the emotional state. Photo: Dan Grayber

His artworks can give the impression of some sort of dangerous alien technology that's merely dormant, not dead, and just waiting for some provocation or maybe just a signal from the mothership to spring to life. Photo: Dan Grayber

Each work is a perfectly self-contained specimen--a notion that's certainly reinforced by their presentation. Photo: Dan Grayber

A detail of one of his complex constructions. Photo: Dan Grayber

But as Grayber is well aware, the idea of perfect, hermetically sealed functionality can only keep us so rapt. What's really compelling is fragility--the possibility that things can go wrong. Photo: Dan Grayber

So while Grayber might have started with the simple aim of inventing things that held themselves up, of late he's been more interested in building things that hold themselves up--but just barely. These days, he says, "I really want the work to exist in a delicate equilibrium--just beyond the point of failure." Photo: Dan Grayber

Photo: Dan Grayber

Photo: Dan Grayber

His artworks can give the impression of some sort of dangerous alien technology that's merely dormant, not dead, and just waiting for some provocation or maybe just a signal from the mothership to spring to life. Photo: Dan Grayber