p < Moebius Trip 25
These sculptures look as though they might have been designed on a computer, but all have been designed by manual calculation, and trial and error. A computer would make changing the angle of a wedge-shaped unit or the number of units in a higher-level unit much easier; but, the problem is, if the software were good enough (and it undoubtedly is), it would be so easy to design multiple variations on a theme, that there would be little incentive to actually make the sculptures.
People always want to know how long these sculptures take to make, but it is difficult to say without mentioning qualifiers. There are usually many unit pieces left-over after the construction of a large piece, so for the next sculpture it may not be necessary to cut any new unit pieces, or it might only be necessary to cut left-over long pieces into new, shorter unit pieces (“So Inclined”). Also, inspiration for the next sculpture sometimes occurs while making the previous one, thus eliminating the usual time for conception of the next sculpture (“All Is Number”). “Chain Reaction” resulted from a challenge to make something out of an envelope, which ended up being a maquette for later conversion into a sculpture. As a rough guide, there have never been more than six large pieces made in one year, and there have been pieces that took more than a year to complete. Making duplicates would be faster but less interesting.
Only two sets of identical sculptures have been made. One was a commission to make a matching pair of sculptures. The commission sat for weeks and was only begun once it was realized that a completely different, but particularly desirable sculpture (“Infinitely Lazy”) would require left-handed units, and creating those units would also create mirror image right-hand pieces from which the commissioned pair (“Conucopious”) could be constructed. This is also the only time that two sculptures have been under construction at the same time. The other set of duplicates is really one sculpture: “The Meeting At Infinity”, a large helix with a second, identical helix rotated into the first.
< So Inclined
Some of the sculptures have matching wood grain and during construction required careful marking of the units to show from which board, and from where within the board, the piece came. Sculptures like this are usually all worked out before starting to make them.
ELIAS WAKAN
S
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