Bridges 2025 Exhibition of Mathematical Art, Craft, and Design

Gabriel Frampton

Artists

Gabriel Frampton

Research Assistant

UT Austin Dell Medical School

Austin, Texas, USA

folded.crystals@gmail.com

https://www.instagram.com/foldedcrystals/

http://foldedcrystals.blogspot.com/

Statement

My origami work is an attempt to give ideal mathematical forms physical representation. Through years of experimentation, I developed a new method of weaving strips together to create geometrical shapes. This approach has the advantage of offering physical strength to the finished designs, which in effect become tensegrity sculptures. My designs draw from the topology of knots, translating a set of interlocking loops into flat strips of varying lengths. Originally I worked in paper, but have moved to more durable materials as the complexity of the designs increased. My current works use Dura-Lar film, which is large and strong enough to make polyhedra a meter in diameter.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Monkey Saddle Icosidodecahedron'

Monkey Saddle Icosidodecahedron

23.0 x 24.0 x 21.0 cm

Duralar polyester film

2024

A 180-piece modular icosidodecahedron where each pentagonal face contains a star-shaped tunnel. Where neighbouring pentagonal faces meet, these tunnels intersect to form 30 heart-shaped pockets, each capped with a bridge which rigidifies the structure. When viewed from a triangular face, the triply-periodic monkey saddles become apparent. To translate this into origami, I represented the shape as a knot of 6 intersecting loops, each a complex ribbon of 390 equilateral triangles. Each of these 6 loops is cut into 30 overlapping segments, which are folded and woven into modules. This modular approach made the assembly process mush simpler than my previous design, which required new pieces to be woven in one at a time during construction.