Samuel Verbiese
Besides expressionistic painting and sculpting of the figure and
portrait, I am recurrently drawn to geometric projects, probably by
previous life experiences in engineering.
This year, two subjects specially triggered my interest. First, in
relationship with this year's third paper on labyrinths at Bridges
Conferences, I pushed the investigation of morphing these emblematic
patterns onto spheres a bit further with a pair of two new citrilabs.
Second, I fiddled around on a fifth Zometool model in my series of
Platonic Extensions started in 2002.
This freestanding tower proposes a double white/blue helix edge-by-edge stacking, not only of the 5-axis Platonics, but also of three parts : the stronger, triangulated base, with icosahedra only, the middle, mixed part, where the white icosas change into dodecas, and the upper one with dodecas only. In between the two helices, all possible red and yellow struts but the shortest, provide interesting helicoïdal connections that form a pentagram core when seen axially through. (After a Zometool workshop project suggested by Dirk Huylebrouck, referring to a work most likely by Gerard Caris he turned into a biological metaphor, and further inspired by comments on Zometool specifics from Paul Hildebrand.)
The first comes almost fully from Eva Knoll's thoughts when she saw my elaborate transformation of her labyrinth that she asked me to 'citrize' during Banff 2009, and suggested a very nice alternative idea, so I just had to implement and further slightly enrich it for metaphoric aesthetics: think about an impossible icosahedron-like antiprism between pyramidal caps but in a cubic symmetry drum then blown up into a sphere to make it really happen, actually a drum with square rubber membranes pulled down to opposite rims...
The second stems from Carlo Séquin's interest in my early expliciting a morphing between the Chartres and St.Omer labyrinths and reverse, augmented by the creation of Mini and Micro versions of the Labyrinth almost identically present in the town hall of Ghent, Belgium. Here a couple of deployed Minis are curled cylindrically then blown into a sphere, displaying twice the signature cross, square (here becoming polar circles), and dot of this historical monument.