Susan Happersett
In my art, I explore the aesthetic qualities of mathematics through
sequences, series, and mapping. I express my ideas in drawings,
paintings, artist's books, and videos. Recurring themes in my work are
the Fibonacci Sequence, Chaos Theory, the Cartesian Coordinate System,
the Cantor Set, Self Similarity and Fractals. Crucial to me is that
all my work is hand-drawn: I design the algorithm and then I execute
it by hand. I am the computer. I have always been interested is
creating hyperbolic forms using basic geometric paper shapes. First
Möbius strips and circles, now I am exploring using squares, octagons
and other polygons. By combining a series of identical shapes I have
been able to build complex sculptures.
“Exploding Octagon Möbius” is constructed from nine identical
concave octagons. Each octagon is divided into eight triangles. To
overlap and connect the nine octagons into a continuous form, two
sets of adjacent triangles must be equilateral. The patterns on
this sculpture are my algorithmically-generated mapping lace
drawings. Three sets of three octagons are rotated 60 degrees
creating a total 180-degree twist creating a form with the same
topology as a Möbius Strip. This complex explosion of paper folds
and points has only one side.