No Such Thing as One
Friday, 10 November 2006
Binary Star – Conrad Shawcross
Conrad Shawcross make kinetic sculptures dealing with philosophical theories around the creation of the universe, harmonics and cosmology. Even if you don’t have a predilection for such concepts as String Theory and Quantum Mechanics (And why shouldn’t you?) you can still marvel at Conrad’s impressive constructions dealing with types of Harmonic Motion. Loop System Quintet consists of five oak ‘machines’ that are engineered to draw ‘knots’ of light in space. The ratios of the different movements of these ‘knots’ are also connected to theories of musical harmony. The work also has added pataphysical dimension by virtue of it being entirely useless, and as the artists says ‘It is all folly, and with no use or product, as a machine, it is tragic’. Harmonic Tower saw the construction of a gigantic Harmonograph (Granddaddy of the Spirograph) – Large-scale ‘space-time’ drawings produced by the machine were installed on the walls around the tower for an exhibition at the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, last year.
No Such Thing as One is a new body of work currently on display at Victoria Miro Gallery, London, (up until the 18 Nov 2006) dealing with aspects of time and the essence of matter. Space Grid (Mirrored tetrahedral system) is ‘a system of tetrahedrons that tessellate universally in space. The system comprises of two types of tetrahedron that are identical but are in fact mirror images of each other. Shawcross arranges these tetrahedrons in a multiplicity of combinations and directions to form a 6-D grid of dense geometry’
The work of this artist relates to two other recent posts on Dataisnature:
Drawings of Harmonic Motion – Bálint Bolygó
Oscillating Light Kinetics – Paul Friedlander
