Sean Lundgren, detail from Nave. Mason line, wood, hardware, dimensions variable. 2011. Photo by Pat Padua.

This summer’s E8 series at Transformer comes to a close with Sean Lundgren’s Nave. Lundgren thrives on the challenge of new materials, and his recent work has employed everything from tile to cranes to five tons of clay. Nave is made up of less weighty stuff, a white frame and hundreds of threads of white string. While this material is a light departure for him, it is no less challenging, and as he and his assistants could tell you, it’s not easy keeping such threads from becoming entangled. Is this a metaphor for the fragile threads we weave in life?

Each of the artist in this summer’s E8: Sculpture program has interpreted the Transformer space in a different way, and Lundgren tells me this came into play during a series of peer critiques as well. Oreen Cohen came to the table with new ideas almost every week; Lindasy Rowinski had her concept in mind from the start, but the execution changed over time. Lundgren’s approach may be in the middle. The resulting works treated the space, and gallery patrons, in very different ways as well: Running Drill veritably overwhelmed the space, while Trying to be There subtly altered it. With Lundgren, all of these approaches guide visitors around the space in different ways.

The idea for the Nave came from the artist’s natural curiosity — when he discovers ideas, he learns enough about them so that they are filtered through his own aesthetic. His latest piece of course comes from the cathedral. While Lundgren is not particularly religious, he recognizes the aesthetic power of houses of worship. He writes, “my first reaction to the Transformer space was how vertical it is. I found my gaze constantly drifting upward and was reminded of how cathedrals are designed to direct the viewer’s gaze to the heavens.” Objects hang from the threads — a trophy, a kitchen sink — that seem to reference other artists but also reflect a kind of spiritual tension — the burdens we carry, the things that weigh us down but also keep us in balance.

Each of the E8 installations are designed to be on view for little more than a week. Lundgren expects to simply cut down the threads of Nave, a less cumbersome but no less potent metaphor than the pick-axe breakdown of Screen, his five-ton clay work. This summer’s cycle of creation and destruction, in a multitude of different but sympathetic voices, has keenly reflected basic artistic, and human, urges: the hunger for new ideas, the urge to rebuild.

Nave is on view at Transformer Gallery for one week only. See the piece Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6; and Wednesday through Saturday, August 10-13. Gallery hours are 1 to 7 p.m. each day.