Xavier De Clippeleir

Statement

KINETIC SCULPTURES I have been inspired by the geometry of the ELLIPTIC CYLINDER. This profile can be formed with a toy spring, the one that walks down stairs . It has an ellipse as cross section and circular sections when cut under the right angle. The circular sections are joined to produce transformable forms. The experiments led to the discovery of transformable polyhedra and design applications a.o. in the field toys ( produced by the Swiss company NAEF SPIELE AG, caterpillar Juba, flexible chain Ellipso, Rhombic cube ). The geometry of the expanding - contracting cubic grid has an equivalent in nature as the crystal structure of minerals named "tilted perovskites".

Artworks

The edges of the rhombic dodecahedron are instrumented with 2 hinges, 48 in total. The dodecahedron transforms into a cube.

The corners of the single cubes are cut under an angle perpendicular to the diagonals of the cube. They form circular faces. The faces are provided with rotation axles and joined. The whole cubic lattice ( grid ) is transformable. The direction of rotation of each cube can be chosen: to the right or to the left. This forms different symmetries within the lattice. The picture shows an assembly of six cubes.The grid is extendable in the x,y,z direction. The grid is rigid.Turning one part transforms the whole structure.

The edges of the cube are elliptic cylinders. Each edge has two circular sections with rotation axles. This allows the cube to rotate into a solid with 24 faces ( icosi tetrahedron ). The photo shows a halfway position.