Much of my work arises in the thrill of discovery, processed through my fascination with science and engineering. The pieces you see here are based on electrical motors and generators. I find it fascinating that objects that were painstakingly designed solely for function can possess such beautiful form. I often wonder what becomes of these objects after they are discarded, and what becomes of the thought that went into their creation. That’s why what you see appear to be fossils and artifacts, because by discovering them this way you are not only discovering remnants of beauty but also discovering the remains of the engineering that went into them. I really don’t create sculpture so much as I discover my own relics.
“Scientists are the true driving force of civilization”
-James Burke
Elements contemplates what we as a species choose to memorialize. The pieces collected here are based on relics from the ancient near east, cultures such as Sumer and Babylon. Like in many cultures these forms originally exalted the deeds of gods and kings. What you don’t often find though, are monuments to the intellectuals who were actually responsible, both literally and metaphorically, for building their cultures. So I’ve taken their forms and re-purposed them to honor and celebrate the foundations of math that enabled them to build their civilizations. The dedications on these works were all taken from Euclid’s Elements. Elements is an ancient text teaching the fundamentals of math, especially geometry, so logically and concisely that it has been in use for 23 centuries. Only one book in history has more editions. Since it is probably impossible to overstate the influence of Elements not only on math, but on all of civilization, I thought it a fitting place to start memorializing the true driving forces of culture.
When I started this body of work I was just playing with simple forms, more as a distraction than anything else. What emerged from that play were delicate porcelain shapes reminiscent of both egg and flower. To me they spoke not only of the rebirth that is the natural reaction to those symbols but, being stone, also of preservation. So I embedded them in my slag like volcanic clay. The result was a delicate fossil preserved in the act of blooming from the magma.