Artists
Rafael
Student
Montgomery College
Rockville, Maryland, USA
Statement
My hope is to explore and innovate in the application of mathematics to architecture for the sake of creating beauty and harmony in space. My work thus far has been on Islamic geometric patterns due to their precise mathematical nature, spiritual meaning, and precedented use in architecture. I have also explored platonic solids, which similarly link mathematics to the spiritual. Through the modeling software Rhino8 and 3D printing, I have created physical, interactive models which apply these 2-dimensional patterns to 3-dimensional solids, altering how they are perceived and understood.
Artworks
These works borrow many diverse patterns and apply them in some way to the faces of each of the platonic solids to create geometric lattices. They are interactive, as a set of panels that snap together and can be readily disassembled. For each solid, a pattern was either split, transformed, and/or distorted to tessellate regularly across its faces, and create unique visual effects when perceived from different angles. This work explores and unifies the spiritual themes of mathematics observed in ancient Greece and prominent in Islamic art, strengthening their principles of perfection, indivisibility, and infinity.
These works borrow many diverse patterns and apply them in some way to the faces of each of the platonic solids to create geometric lattices. They are interactive, as a set of panels that snap together and can be readily disassembled. For each solid, a pattern was either split, transformed, and/or distorted to tessellate regularly across its faces, and create unique visual effects when perceived from different angles. This work explores and unifies the spiritual themes of mathematics observed in ancient Greece and prominent in Islamic art, strengthening their principles of perfection, indivisibility, and infinity.