I was thrilled to hear recently my sculptural entry in the 2023 EQUS Emergence Art Competition, “Bucky’s Indian Defence” was shortlisted to the top 10 entries and will be exhibited at the M2 Gallery in Sydney opening on the 29th June, 2023 until 3 July, 2023. Here is my artist’s statement explaining my piece. I hope to attend opening night in person and so might perhaps see you there!
Bucky’s Indian Defence
‘Bucky’ is a nod to one of my academic crushes R. Buckminster Fuller who hypothesised the tetrahedron underpinned the universe and that the latter, could also be described as a game of chess (with the moves to be made stemming from the visible and non-visible vectors within the tetrahedra). This chess analogy also inspired my title as a Sicilian defence in chess, involving E8 (the black king (Bucky, as one of my heroes as the ‘king’, and the symbolic E8 mother crystal, herein) and C4 (reflective of a 4D quasicrystal which I’ve also tried to encapsulate in the work - the ‘c'lear perspex board), is known as the “Indian Defence".
The box symbolises a time frame of the natural world - a snapshot of reality incorporating: an ‘E8 crystal’, a ‘quasicrystal’, ‘pixels’, ‘information', ‘causality loops’, ‘non-determinism’ and the ‘golden ratio’, all which are subjectively perceived and analysed at any given moment, by the artwork viewer with an element of choice (consciousness).
The 8 layered, triangular lattice structure is symbolic of the E8 mother crystal (as it is impossible to visualise or construct an 8 dimensional form, other than mathematically via lie algebras) is constructed in a periodic pattern to reflect the above-mentioned tetrahedral vectors as the foundation of the universe. The wires extend outside the box, through the periodic holes (reflecting the ‘plank length’ or the lengths of the tetrahedral dice) to illustrate the infinite nature of the repetition. The variegated metallic tones, in daylight, give a celestial, fragile, ever-changing appearance befitting of the crystal.
The suspension of the E8 above a body of tetrahedra symbolises projection of the ‘mother’ crystal to a 4D quasicrystal (the 3D tetrahedra, plus the clear perspex base, which, as it connects all the particles and thus loops them - refers to ‘time’, and in totality, then, the base is not periodic (as the tetrahedra aren’t fixed and can move about)). This looseness and dice, evidences non-determinism and that the state of one tetrahedron influences the state of another in any given moment and further, that the state is determined by how the viewer observes the work or our consciousness. The packing of tetrahedra reflects the golden ratio and, in their replicated forms, the dice also represent pixels comprising reality. Information is shown via these tetrahedra again - as geometic symbols in their own right - and also via the numbers on the surfaces. As they are free to change their positions but are ‘connected’ via the surface of the clear perspex base, representative of the flow time (4D), also, then, the tetrahedra illustrate causality loops. Further, here, the different colours of the resin tetrahedra are symbolic of the past (pink - some contain triangular photographs), the present (blue) and the future (yellowy-green). Their lumping-together on the perspex reflects all time affecting all time, all of the time! The colours are also loosely based on those ascribed to quarks and thus antiquarks and therefore, cumulatively, they produce ‘no net colour’ - like the concept of our universe. An analogy could also be drawn to roygbiv and white in the classical world.
The distinct layers of the work reflect the currently disparate worlds of quantum and classical mechanics which are bridged or unified (by emergence theory) in this work.
The luminescence also connects to emergence theory’s quest to determine the speed of light and other fundamental constants. In darkness, the tetrahedra glow revealing only our ever-evolving 3D visible reality. This too is symbolic of emergence theory, stemming from the dark void between classical and quantum mechanics to unify and illuminate both in our visible, tangible realm of existence.