Desselation

I've long been interested in tesselation, the covering of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps. I decided to use mount board to create a 3D version of such a tesselation, where one can imagine the edges of the tiles being extruded into the third dimension. I rather liked the idea of these almost secret, dark cells hiding the unknown. This is something I've explored before in ceramics. 

Although this can be lost in the flattening of the piece into a photo,the black, locked cell is a sealed cell.

I based the tesselation (350x350mm without frame) on irregular cells, perhaps inspired by images  of spiders' webs created under the influence of psychoactive drugs. It seems my design most closely mimics the web of a spider on caffeine. It may also have been influenced by the bubble photos I have been taking.

The oppressive, claustrophobic, nervy nature of this cellular structure seemed appropriate given that I had been doing some background reading in preparation for giving a short talk on mens' mental health to about 100 men at Blokefest, a festival for men to get together to camp, eat, drink and sing. Previous Blokefest events have also included mens' health talks, such as prostate cancer, and given what we have been going through over the last 18 months, the timing for this talk felt right. Mental health concerns around the world have been growing over this time and increasing numbers are suffering from depression, anxiety and panic attacks.

Covid restrictions had certainly been in my thoughts when conceiving this. Isolation, fear, misinformation, inaction, uncertainty and worry take their toll on the psyche. The copper figure, darkened with Liver of Sulphur, evokes the Everyman, crouched, back bent, head down, trapped in his claustrophobic cell. This was just meant to be a proof-of-concept figure but I grew attached to him - with all his flaws.

I presume the sealed cell with the key came from the subconscious after having lockdown in mind though I only realised this later. There is a cardboard housing behind the keyhole with a pin that centres the barrel key in the usual way. The key may thus be inserted and turned though it does nothing other than cause a click from a sprung plastic tab. It is forever sealed.

It works well with the paper lamp I made a few months ago.

Edit (February 2025): On a whim I decide to find out what ChatGPT would say about this piece. You can find out here.

October 2021