Nathan Wilson

Statement

I have been creating with math since childhood, drawn early on to mosaics and building with unit blocks. Once I started to study math formally, I embraced the idea that mathematical systems exist independently of human presence and are embedded in our physical world. Nature’s examples of proportionality, symmetry, inflation/deflation and partitioning excite me. At first an accidental welder in university, exploring this order quickly became my work as an artist. I've worked in a variety of mediums, including welded steel, cardboard, paper, and stainless steel wire. Polyhedral symmetry, crystallography, and acoustics are my artistic muses. They fuel my creative process along with my interest in “analog” materials, methods and technologies.

Artworks

Disharmonice Mundi depicts a familiar structure, adapted to the point of virtual unrecognizability as a dodecahedron. Based on the “penultimate system” of origami, components are arranged in a 3-color pattern. The thinnest strips are from the NYTimes, the mids from the China Press, and the widest are sourced from a textless “Luxury Brand” magazine. The journalistic content of the fragile thin and mid width newspaper modules depict a post Covid world, struggling with instability. Frequently, dependence on commercialism frames these stories, and the two nations' connection to commercialism is both figuratively and literally embodied by the widest and hardiest of the modules, providing the greatest structural support to the overall system.