SUBTERRAIN (WHITE COLUMN FIELD), 2002CELLS (WHITE COLUMN FIELD), 2000The hexagonal grid is a modular design of remarkable efficiency that is often associated with honeycomb construction, and the building skills of insects. The tight packing that a hexagon shape allows creates a seamless connection from cell to cell, and an infinite number of units can be configured to produce a surface without any leftover space. Remarkably the system remains intact, the surface uninterrupted, even when particular cellular units are stretched horizontally, vertically, or in a random fashion. Projected into three-dimensional shapes, a hexagonal lattice becomes a field of column like forms. Cells (White Column Field ) was built in 2001 for an exhibition at the Bannister Gallery at the Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island. The plan for Cells developed out of an investigation into how individually stretched hexagonal units might be used in the design of an architectural space. A field of columns was created by attaching PVC sheeting to a hexagonal patterned lattice, which had been anchored to the ceiling. All of the columns were constructed with six convex curves and connected at the top to form a seamless false ceiling, but each one was unique in width and volume. Subterrain(White Column Field ) was built in 2002 for an exhibition at the Main Gallery at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens. Again a hexagon lattice supported a field of columns, but a dramatic 35 foot barrel vault ceiling in the gallery allowed for the horizontal division of the space into two distinct regions—one above the grid and one below. The seamlessness of the ceiling gave no clue of the region above to those walking through the column field. Visible only from an observation deck were the hexagonal ceiling lattice and the hollow spaces of the column forms. From this viewpoint the columns did not appear as solid supporting elements but more closely resembled empty fluted vessels.
Subterrain (White Column Field), 2002 |
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