Artwork Description:
It is hard to convey the sense of motion which this sculpture creates as it bursts out in all directions. Compass Points is a 14-inch diameter one-of-a-kind sculpture assembled from identical pieces of laser-cut wood (solid aspen). From a distance, it is suggestive of a confusing explosion of fireworks. On close-up examination, we see it is composed of separate X-shaped parts which are intricately woven through each other and meet in groups of three and five. Assembling the parts was quite a challenge. They only touch at the outer joints, and narrowly pass by each other at various angles in the interior. The name Compass Points alludes both to the points of the geometer's tool which are echoed in the shapes of wood and to the X of cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West. But the cardinal directions of this sculpture's compass points radiate all about the three-dimensional world; they are the 3-fold and 5-fold symmetry axes of an icosahedron.