2018 Bridges Conference Nominees' Gallery
Mircea Draghicescu
Artists
Statement
I try to find new ways of combining simple shapes into mathematically-inspired sculptures. I am especially interested in "universal" systems that can generate many forms based on a single shape and/or connection mechanism. The resulting structures derive their appeal from the mathematical principles of elegance, generality and economy of resources.
Artworks
Platonic Projections
60 x 75 x 30 cm
Steel wire, paper, acrylic balls
2018
The steel wires in each mobile component form a central tetrahedron, cube, and octahedron, respectively.
The tension that makes a polyhedron hold its shape tightly around its midsphere is provided by the paper polygons which correspond to the faces of the dual polyhedron (distorted here for aesthetic reasons).
This method of intertwining tensioned elements can be used, in principle, to create similar sculptures based on any convex polyhedron.