sphere - the sculpture
exploring the desire for perfection
This artwork explores the human desire to achieve perfection. How does one produce a sphere from flat copper? In the long and monotone process of shaping copper, immense amounts of time and human energy are required to slowly approach a point of perfection. One must have the will to want to reach for this perfection, while still acknowledging the impossibility of such a feat. The perfect sphere can only exist in one’s mind. The sphere is a symbol for the highest possible amount of simplicity and perfection, that of a perfect form. A real object can only get infinitely close to, but never reach, this perfection.
The process of making this sphere is as such a performative act. You incessantly repeat the same mechanical movement – one blow of the hammer followed by another, hour after hour, day after day. One must force the body into the process, practice the movement, in other words: automate.
While one hand strikes the ambos with a hammer, the other is used to move the copper between said hammer and ambos. Every hit from the hammer forms a small, shiny circle. These circles again pull circles around the center of the plate. When the hammering causes the copper’s atomic structure to harden, heat followed by a cooling period is required to relax the atomic structure to prevent the metal from becoming brittle.
This process only ends when the time you have for it does; the perfect sphere has not been attained. In this activity, however, something is explored. This unreachable perfection is something I would like to further investigate.
geidai university of arts tokyo 2017
perfection is only a concept.
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perfection is only a concept. 〰️
The sphere is mirroring the world, it reflects my reality. It captures the whole 3dimensional space around it and creates its own little world.
just after I finished the sphere I realized how magical the reflections are, creating a little planet. I started to walk around in the campus toride, catching every room in the reflection, transformed into its own little world. Since then I captured the sphere in many situations and created its own little story: sphere - the fotoseries.
