Ligia Unanue

Artist
Independent
Barcelona, Spain

For several years my work has focused on the development of Platonic and Archimedean solids. In that way I have reached a point of more complexity when applying on their faces the motifs of geometric patterns of the Nasrid art of the Alhambra of Granada, which at the same time has led me to spherify these forms. The construction of these polyhedra is done entirely by hand and with glass tubes as the main material. Through this experience I have been discovering empirical methods for the calculation, measures and proportions and innovative solutions to carry them out. When I believe that they are finished, I realize the many dimensions they possess, then I feel them alive and in continuous transformation.

Nebulosa A 1702
Nebulosa A 1702
35 x 35 x 35 cm
Glass bugle beads
2019

The empty, subtle and ethereal faces of the Nebulosa A 1702 represent the passage from the dense, static and heavy of the cube to the sphericity. It is not a cube, it is not a sphere, it is in an intermediate step because the triangles have liberated it from its corners of 90ยบ. However, it has not been able to free itself from its axes.
It is a ROMBICUBOCTAHEDRON. 12 of its 18 empty squares are joined by their vertices.
It has 6 squares and 8 triangles with designs of geometric patterns of the Nasrid art of the Alhambra of Granada. The squares have the eight-pointed stars and the triangles have the nine-pointed stars. It is totaly handmade with 1702 glass bugle beads 14 different sizes, from 5mm to 32mm and many hours.

Planeta T 2768
Planeta T 2768
30 x 30 x 30 cm
Bugle glass beads
2019

This sculpture is a new stage of my work and is made after finishing Nebula A 1702. I have based myself on geometric motifs of the Nasrid art of the Alhambra and I have ordered them using a spherical version of the rhombicuboctahedron.
I used as a method a ball in which I drew coordinates. I marked the points of the vertices of the 18 squares and 8 triangles of that polyhedron and I obtained the arched forms of the bases of the square and of the triangle. In these shapes I studied the measurements and colors of the 2768 glass tubes so that the designs of eight- and nine-pointed stars could give symmetrical shape to the sphere. With this same method, any polyhedron can be spherical and this is my new project.