This End Up

George W. Hart

 


This is a table-top size (9 inch diameter) sculpture made of acrylic plastic (plexiglas). It can also be suspended and looks beautiful in a window with sunlight on it. I assemble it from twenty identical pieces. Each has the form shown below, which is carefully calculated so that the arms can dance around each other yet only touch at their arrow tips. Because of the way arrows point out in all directions, I named it This End Up.


It is hard to capture in a photograph how the many parts just pass by each other at various angles.  So the computer-generated image below is better for conveying the intricacy of its structure.  Mathematically, it is based on the compound of five regular octahedra, but you do not need to understand the math to appreciate its balance and symmetry.  Of course this computer image can not capture the way light goes through the ttransparent parts and reflects off the surfaces.  So one really must see it in person to fully appreciate it visually and geometrically.

 
This is one of a series of acrylic sculptures which I am making in a limited edition of only six unique copies.  For others in the series, view my acrylic sculpture limited editions page.

 

Copyright 2003, George W. Hart