Susan Happersett

Statement

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.

Artworks

“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.