Josep Rey Nadal
Artists
Josep Rey Nadal
Mathematical artist and creative museographer
MMACA (Mathematics Museum of Catalonia)
La Garriga, Catalonia, Spain
Statement
I am a mathematician, former teacher, artist, mathematical and creative museographer of Mathematics Museum of Catalonia. Part of my art consists in taking objects and forms from nature, irregular and perhaps with accidents such as breakage or insect attacks, and putting them in a new harmony. Each of the parties collaborate in this new harmony.
Artworks
Tribute to H.S.M. Coxeter
40 x 40 x 40 cm
Raw cypress wood, paint, and mirrors
2020
With a small piece, consisting of a square, a third of a triangle, a fifth of a pentagon, and two quarters of a golden rhombus introduced in a kaleidoscope that repeats it 60 times, a deltoidirhombicosidodecahedron (proposed name) with 122 faces is formed. The deltoidal kaleidoscope is build with two Coxeter minimal kaleidoscopes. The wood of the pieces starts raw in the central part of each polygon and is sharpened through until it is coloured in the edge. It's a path from the irregular to the regular harmony. The aesthetics is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's drawings. With this kaleidoscope we can create the polyhedrons with icosahedral symmetry, and we could also see the deltoidal hexecontahedron from a simple deltoid.