Artists
Hanne Kekkonen
Assistant Professor
Delft University of Technology
Delft, Netherlands
Statement
I'm a mathematician exploring the visualisation of topological shapes to make abstract mathematical concepts more accessible. I am especially interested in surfaces with negative curvature, from the hyperbolic plane to minimal surfaces and gyroids. I work with various mediums, but crochet allows me to most intuitively create complex three-dimensional shapes.
Artworks
Bour’s Minimal Surfaces
15.0 x 50.0 x 50.0 cm
Cotton yarn, plastic filament, metal ring
2024-2025
Minimal surfaces can be thought of as a mathematical generalisation of soap film surfaces. When a wire frame is dipped into soapy water, the resulting surface is optimal in the sense that it minimises the surface area bounded by the frame. Bour's minimal surfaces are a family of minimal surfaces that are intrinsically surfaces of revolution. This means that the length of a line segment on the surface does not depend on the angle. This rotational symmetry makes it possible to calculate simple crochet instructions, as only one type of stitch is needed, and increases or decreases in stitches can be spaced evenly on a round. The Enneper’s, Richmond’s, and Bour’s B3 surfaces are all special cases of Bour's minimal surfaces.