Anduriel Widmark
Art is a good excuse to play. Play is a fun way to try on new realities. Exploring patterns and symmetry through abstraction presents an opportunity to look outside of a regular pattern of seeing. Relationships between underlying forces exemplify the inseparability of structure and narration. Structures and voids organize a lattice around these distinctions and connections.
I was surprised to discover there are only 12 unique homogeneous arrangements of 9 sticks organized under compression on the simple-cubic/ tetrastix lattice. Each structure is made of three perpendicular groups of three parallel congruent sticks. Every arrangement has three 4-fold axes of symmetry where all sides are identical using 90 degree rotations. If only six sticks are used then there are only five possible arrangements. Matchsticks were dyed and bound using elastics, then glued into place. Building these sculptures is a fun way to get creative, use mathematics to explore symmetry, and develop spatial intuition.