The Kinaesthesia of Sun and Wind

SADDLE MOTIFSDEPLOYED IN INDEFINITELY EXTENDIBLE HELICAL CONTINUITIES Brent Collins (sculptor), 90 Railroad Avenue, Gower, MO 64454, U.S.A. Received 20January 1995. Acceptedfor publication Oy Rogerl;: Malina. In my series of saddle-motif sculptures (Figs2 and 3), I deployed saddle-form modules in spiral progression around the longitudinal axis of each work. In creating these sculptures I was guided by a visual and kinaesthetic sense of their innermost logic, and as I proceeded with each I was surprised by the emergence of a topological fecundity, the integral subtlety of which I had entirely failed to perceive in its originating logic. In Spiral Minimalization II [Fig. 3), for instance, the ribbon edges not only spiral around the sculpture’speriphery, but they also epicyclicallyspiral around an imaginary line defining the mean surface curvature of its peripheral circuits . I had foreseen the former effect in the germinal logic of the work, along with the “either/or” cheirality inherent in the progression of any spiral, but the epicycloid spiral was an unanticipated Fig 2. Brent Collins, SpiralMinimalization 2, wood, 12 x 12 x 72 in, 1994. Four spirals are synchronized to intersect at 90’ angles in this sculpture’sgerminal logic. The surfaces spanning them at their crossings are saddles articulatedlaterallyin relation to the sculpture’slongitudinal axis. (Photo: Phillip Geller) dimension I only became aware of as it emerged during the creation of the work. Later study also revealed that the cheirality of the ribbon edges as they spiral around the periphery-and that of their epicyclic spiral around their mean peripheral circuits-is always the same: in the sculpture, both ascend counterclockwise. Capping all this is a traceable contour line spiraling through the piece’s interior that is continually equidistant from its longitudinal . The contour line has an integrally opposite cheirality to that of the exterior spiral of its ribbon edges. Again, I did not discover this aspect until I explored the nearly completed piece by threading two lengths of twine, one on each of its opposite sides. Four spirals are synchronized to quadrangularly intersect at 90’ angles in the germinal logic of Spiral Minimalizalion I (see Fig. 2). Saddle curvatures span these intersectionswith soap-film economy. As it happens, these spirals ascend in a clockwise spiral, although a counterclockwise cheirality could have been chosen. This piece’s ribbon edges traverse its interior at successive levels, between which they helically skirt its exterior in clockwise ascension, creating the successive outer spiral segments. Interestingly, as these Fig. 3. Brent Collins, SpiralMinitnalization 22, wood, 12 x 12 x 56 in, 1994. The minimal surface modules in this sculpture meree saddles articulatedboth verticallv edges traverse the interior they face successivecardinal directions at each level, progressing from one to the next in opposite cheirality to that of the four spirals. In each piece, the interior cheirality runs counter to those of its exterior, demonstrating an affinity that underlies their obvious differences. In my view the potential profundity of an aesthetic directly relates to its analytic subtlety. The poetry of science can only be realized in an art no less subtle-then between art and science there can be a symbiosisof inspiration. THE KINAESTHESIA OF SUN AND WIND Alex Nicoloff (artist), 1729 Virginia Street, Berkeley, CA 94703, U.S.A. Manuscrip received 14Nove)iiber 1995. Acceptedlor publication by RogerE Malina. Watching sewer pipe being laid in the street one day, I wondered what it would look like if it were cut into pieces and suspended as a sculpture. I asked for and was given a scrap that I then sliced up into eight pieces. Using heavy nylon filament, I hung each one of them by its edge and varied the length of the filament’s intervals from top to bottom so they could rotate freely (Fig. 4). After a few days, curious regularities began appearing in their otherwise random behavior. On cool summer mornings in the San Francisco Bay Area when dense foc enshrouds evervthinc. the off the fog, it generated gentle air currents , causing each ring to move around the others in an undulating, graceful sweep. Spinning around a thin filament of dominating, centripetal power, the rings would move towards or away from each other but would never...