Sculptor reinterprets notions of motion through his hands-on artworks. His latest exhibition, Vanishing Point: A shift in perspective, in a south London warehouse, is an exploration of the joys, intricacies and physics of movement. The sculptures emulate the geometry, repetition and movement inherent in nature, while allowing visitors to engage with this beauty hands-on. The exhibition is .
Turbine
This large ceiling-hung sculpture is made up of mint green waves of glass fibre, which at rest form a spiral around a central axis. Like all of the pieces in the exhibition Turbine is Interactive. A handle hanging from the base of the sculpture allows visitors to rotate it – mutating the sculpture into a multitude of forms. Because it is frustratingly impossible to align the waves, the piece continuously changes.
(Image: Dave Stock)
Square Wave
Curling like a leaf in autumn, Black’s graceful stainless-steel sculpture comes alive at a human touch or a gust of wind. Its careful engineering imbues the metal with a delicacy and gracefulness. To watch its counter-intuitive movement spin and twist and curl, only to unfurl again like a fish, is a bizarre yet quite magical experience.
(Image: Dave Stock)
Serpentine
In Serpentine the dynamic physics of Black’s sculptures again becomes apparent. As with Turbine, it is almost impossible to align the elements along its off-centre axis. The shapes created by twisting and turning a handle controlling the axis are mathematically regular but complex and fluid. The user can influence their movement but cannot control the changing outcome.
(Image: Dave Stock)
Orange Loops
Many of Black’s sculptures are delicately constructed. This one uses embedded magnets and ball bearings to hold together successive miniaturisations of the bold asymmetrical ellipse. The observer breathes life into the fragments by blowing on them, prompting each piece to revolve and changing the piece in complex, unpredictable ways.
(Image: Dave Stock)
Kinetic Array #1
Like Orange Loops, Kinetic Array #1 is built using balsa wood and plastic laminate, allowing the piece to remain strong yet light. Its modules are contained within a constant frame, but as the user blows they spin haphazardly into a riot of broken symmetry.
(Image: Dave Stock)
Red rectangles
Another variant on Orange Loops, the more aggressive shape and colour of this sculpture, along with its regularity, brings to mind mathematical puzzles as the rectangles spin around each other.
(Image: Dave Stock)
