Susan Happersett

Statement

In my art, I explore the aesthetic qualities of mathematics through sequences, series and, now, 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

Quadrilateral Lace Hyperbolic was formed using 12 squares. Each square features a 2 by 2 grid of 4 square lace algorithmically generated mapping drawings. Each quadrilateral drawing has 4-fold rotational symmetry. Folding each square horizontally and vertically through the center, then cutting a slit in each of the 12 square sheets of paper, I am able to stack and interweave the squares. The result is an accordion book sculpture with a continuous pattern that forms ruffles and winds its way out of the 2-dimensional plane.