Erik Åberg

Statement

I studied circus history which brought me to research the origin of apparatus and objects used in circus. A circus artist uses predetermined objects, such as clubs, trapeze or teeterboard and I wanted to investigate a creative process that started before the object or apparatus existed. I started to look at very basic shapes and became interested in how mathematical and geometrical objects felt and could be manipulated in your hands, and in the movement quality they could create. I began to create wooden objects and explored them as tactile mathematics, and math that you experience vicerally.

Artworks

I call the sculptures Ghostcubes, because I had not predicted how they moved or what shape they could transform into. They are the result of methods of repeating, mirroring and dislocating simple configurations of cubes. Each Ghostcube has a number of positions it can be in, and it can be combined with others to form larger structures, towers or abstract architecture.

The starting point was a new creation process for the circus artists and for the objects they use. I wanted functional objects, that could change shape and began to research how to translate paper folding and origami, to wood. I became interested in three-dimensional hinged tessellations, and the specific movement quality that they can create. Movement, that resembles a school of fish or a flock of birds. The measurements I used where taken from the size of my hands and fingers.