2021 Joint Mathematics Meetings
Leslie Dycke
Artists
Statement
I enjoy creating unique and challenging sculptures. As a visually oriented person I work as a sculptor creating in a wide range of materials but predominantly stone. The joy I feel in discovering the underlying mathematical principles is combined with solving the technical problems each piece presents. The challenge is creating a work without the aid of computers or cad/cam programs and still achieve the precision for the piece to work. The corresponding visual models I have created have led to sculptures that convey an aesthetic message even to people who do not know the mathematics underlying them.
Artworks
Satori
180 x 55 x 45 cm
Marble and Granite
2000
Satori consists of a solid torus with an offset inner ring whose diameters are constrained by two intersecting planes. This combined with the subtractive method of stone removal has proved to be an enormous challenge without the aid of cad/cam programs and CNC machines. To achieve my vision I use ingenuity and other techniques to reach the desired goal. Whether reading about the latest advances in the sciences or observing the nature that surrounds me, I am always intrigued when I find that some mathematical concept underpins the beauty of what I observe. Math always seems to creep into my work, sometimes subtly. I feel that the order that math brings to my work adds to the beauty of the final product.
Kensho
70 x 20 x 14 cm
Carrara marble and Granite
2015
Kensho is the Japanese word for Enlightenment which is a perfect expression of the concept. The sculpture is a physical space bounded by an elliptical form and yet infinite within, as expressed by the Mobius shape in the center thus creating a minimal surface sculpture. A straight line can be projected on any surface of the sculpture by connecting one edge to the other by passing through the Mobius form at the center.