Sculptures from Fabric Structures
Transcript of Sculptures from Fabric Structures
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Sculpture from Fabric Structures James Mallos
Mathematically InclinedTakoma Park, April 5, 2013
Closure, 2013.
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PicassoLewitt
Calder
Shapiro
A short history of assembled sculpture
Asawa
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The components are sculptures themselves:
Empathetic Neutral Antipathetic
identification alienation
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...at the Textile Museum bookstore.
Where it all started for me...
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(By the light of later understanding: an assembly of empathetic elements evokes society.)
Photo from “The Primary Structures of Fabrics.”
I liked this picture:
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I started weaving...
Offering, 2008.
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...and making images of weaving, which is easy, because...
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...every computer graphics surface mesh is just a basket drawn in a different way...
Triangular truchet tiles for weaving.
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...so all the characters in computer animations are baskets...
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...but that doesn’t make weaving any easier to do...
Olivier’s Fingertip,Sculpture NOW 2009.
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Big Little,Crystal City BID2010-11
...whether big...
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Flat City, Artomatic 2010.
...or...
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...small.
Maquette for Olivier’s Fingertip, 2008.
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Weaving’s got an ugly problem...
...closed shapes require splices.
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An attractive solution is unit weaving: all the elements are short, and splices are everywhere.
Da Vinci, “Codex Atlantico.”
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Truchet tiles show that unit weaving works on any orientable surface (but not on a Möbius strip or the like.)
Triangular truchet tiles for unit weaving.
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Many of my sculptures are unit weaving.
City of Alexandria, Mental Map, 2007.
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Sketch. Artomatic 2007.
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Maquette for Nightweeds, 2007.
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Maquettes for Genes of Shape, 2009.
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Recycled Can Fabric, 2011.Textile Museum Green Photo Contest
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Knots Code ShapesArtomatic 2012.
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So...are there other fabric-making techniques that can make every surface?
A theorem in topology gives a clue...
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Any closed surface can be slit open in such a way that the whole surface can be stretched out to a polygon with an even number of sides.
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Any closed surface can be slit open in such a way that the whole can be stretched out to a polygon!
Eiffel Tower(1889)
Elastomeric Dip Coat
2-Manifold Surface without
Boundary(2013)
The elastomeric surface slit,
stripped, and stretched out to
a many-sided polygon
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Making a polygon is child’s play for any fabric-making technique...
...but we still have to suture up the cuts. That means working new-into-old, or patching.
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Everything we want to make is a patch.
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Crochet is the only endless thread* technique that readily works new-into-old.
* i.e., the whole yarn or wire supply does not need to be passed through each stitch.
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Kinds of Crochet Chains
Lefty RightyWalking
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Zip Crochet: crochet in heavy-gauge wire
Pre-forming Zipping
Zipped chains Technique of a crochet
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Workshops
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Thanks!
Brief Boom, 2013.(in Strathmore Drawing for Art)