Tension Cable Display Ideas

Pieces of art are hung on walls with tension cables.gallery image by MATTHIEU FABISIAK from Fotolia.com

Tension cables are strong metal cables that hold a large amount of weight but are only as thick as a standard piece of rope. These cables are often used to display different types of art, photography or sculpture and can be hung on a wall or in the middle of a room or gallery in a number of ways.

Single Tension Cable Displays

Single tension cables running from the ceiling to the floor are often used to display one painting, or a number of different paintings in a gallery. These cables are usually thicker than most tension cables, as they are solely reliant on holding all the weight of the artwork. Some cables also have wires running beside them or within them to detect movement of the artwork and prevent theft. In large public galleries, the cables are often covered by strips or plastic painted the same color as the wall, so they blend in and don't distract from the art.

Some photograph displays feature parallel tension cables running along a wall, with one cable holding the top two corners of a photo and another cable holding the bottom two corners. These cable displays are relatively inexpensive to install, with the photos hanging along them mounted with hooks or small rings on the backs of their frames. This also allows photos to slide from side to side and be easily added and removed. If this display was in a coffee shop, for example, the wall art and photography would be easy to switch out every week, creating a gallery within the commercial space.

Some galleries with large open spaces and lack of wall space install floating tension cable displays in which two thick tension cables run from floor to ceiling in a section of the room. Special attachments on the back of each artwork piece clamp onto the cable, so the artwork appears to float in mid-air. This tension cable display is more difficult to set up but creates much more display area in a gallery with ample open space.