David Hirsch

Statement

This work is for me a story of coming full circle. In 1980 I registered a patent named 'a device for generating a meander motion'. It described a solid with a single developable face, known today as the sphericon. Since then, more solids have been found that shared the same property, but the sphericon was unique in having a face made of a uniform surface rather than various kinds of surfaces. Recently, I was asking myself whether there were other solids sharing this characteristic. This led me to a new study whose outcome was, to my joy, the discovery of a new family of solids, of which the sphericon is the first member. Thus the sphericon has now found its family and I was lucky to come full circle and meet my original inspiration again.

Artworks

The work shows the sphericon with the hexacon and the octacon, two of its newly found family members. Like all members of this infinite family (which I named 'the polycons'), they share the unique property of having a single developable face made of a uniform surface (one kind of conical surface). The objects are displayed in a square apparatus that allows changes in its floor's slope. This makes the objects start moving around and show their characteristic meander motion. This work aims to display the unique visual and geometric qualities of the new family members, as well as their harmonious playful movement, and also to tell a story of an entity, that after many years, has found its real family.