Artist's Studio, England

LIFE

HEIGHT 15 INCHES (40CM)
POLISHED STAINLESS STEEL
1996

"the miracle of replication"

Like all children, I was fascinated by snowflakes, and this naturally lead to crystals. I made a wooden copy of a cubic pyrite crystal from Spain, in an attempt to understand and feel the growth of the structure.

This lead to my thinking about a basic shape that could multiply and change in form. I began with half of a rhombus of Fertility, which could grow into a hexagram, and then into a hexagon.

Imagine a sheet of these hexagons can roll up into a ball, as shown in the sculpture. For me it now resembles a living creature, a Diatom, and has become LIFE.

The Center for Computational Biology at  the University of Montana have an animated version of LIFE (594KB).


©Mathematics and Knots/Edition Limitee 1996
This material may be used freely for educational, artistic and scientific purposes, with ackowledgement, but may not be used for commercial purposes, for profit or in texts without the permission of the publishers.

Last updated 5 March, 1998.