Animated Moire Effects With Layered Materials
My layered artworks are best experienced when viewed at different angles and sometimes from varying distances. The viewer can move around them slowly to see the ever-changing visual effects in the pieces. Known as moire patterns, named after a textile pattern created by pressing wet fabrics together, these effects are created when different regular patterns interfere with each other. These days, the term "moire effects" refers generally to the image of interfering patterns.
The beauty of these sculptures is perhaps not so much in the pieces themselves, but rather in the way we perceive them. They are as accessible to a child as to a sophisticate (though a child may need a stool to get close). You need bring only your eyes, your willingness to explore, and a bit of time to become involved. I hope that small commitment will lead to moments of wonder, or at least fun.
Click on any picture for an expanded image.
The beauty of these sculptures is perhaps not so much in the pieces themselves, but rather in the way we perceive them. They are as accessible to a child as to a sophisticate (though a child may need a stool to get close). You need bring only your eyes, your willingness to explore, and a bit of time to become involved. I hope that small commitment will lead to moments of wonder, or at least fun.
Click on any picture for an expanded image.
The Wheel
I created The Wheel, shown above and in detail below, from modular shelving panels, painted corrugated paper, a turntable bearing, a stainless steel drinking glass, wood, and miscellaneous hardware fasteners. The combination of these elements creates a myriad of continuously changing pattern interactions, so that the viewer moving from one part of the piece to another sees these patterns animate, swirling and shifting and even changing hue with respect to every slight change in the angle and position of view. The 42" diameter piece is mounted on a turntable bearing, allowing the viewer to spin it into different positions for close inspection.
Internally Lit Perforated Metal Panels and Towers
Separated layers of painted, perforated metal sheet with LED lighting in between create illusions of deep space that react to every viewer's movement and even create the illusion of geometric figures that do not exist in the materials. Rosette figures multiply as you move closer, expand as you move away, and slide sideways as you move laterally.
Landscape Pieces
Blue Green Lightbox
The Blue Green Lightbox, shown here is photos taken from different distances, has three layers of painted perforated metal with rings of LED lighting between the layers. The size of the apparent geometric figures varies with proximity and appears to move laterally with the viewer's movements. On the outer surface is an illusion of nested linear hexagon figures, which exhibit a cognitive visual process that helps us identify edges and surfaces for navigating through our material world.
Green Purple Lightbox
The Green Purple Lightbox is similar in construction and behavior to the Blue Green Lightbox, but has a different color scheme, with purple LEDs between the two outer layers. This piece won first prize for 3D at the 2021 Georgetown Art Hop. (sold)
Gather Round In Circles
When the viewer moves laterally, the rosettes in the center appear to move in the opposite direction of the larger ones on the outside. Selected for the People's Gallery at City Hall 2019.
Rosette Towers
Rosette Pyramid
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The Rosette Tower series employs sheets of painted perforated aluminum configured as boxes with internal sheets, lit from below, and mounted on various scaffolding. The geometry of the layout is such that moving around the pieces evokes sprays of rosette-shaped color against variously colored backgrounds that shift in relation to the point of view with a variety of moire effects. Depending on your mood, you might find these pieces contemplative, pyrotechnical, or geometrically geeky.
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Rosette Towers I and II
Rosette Tower I was displayed at Austin City Hall as part of the 2017 People's Gallery.
To see a video of the Rosette Tower II at the right, click here. You can view it in full screen HD by using the icons on the video bar. |
Internally Lit Furniture
Table Lamps
A matching pair of 24x20x14 table lamps has painted perforated metal surfaces and internal dividers in steel frame on varnished maple platforms with an LED lamp. The pieces are suitable for accent but emit enough light for reading. The lamp on the right was made from the bones of a dead air purifier.
Shadow Box Table and Turbine Lamp
Rosette PanelsThe Rosette Panel series employs sheets of painted, perforated aluminum, separated by some nominal space, and backed with colored panels. Several of the pieces have internal lighting, which can create a striking, deep-space effect. The illuminated space appears to expand beyond the boundaries of the frame, as if looking out a window.
Green Rosette utilizes two sheets of unpainted perforated aluminum, internally lit with green LED's.
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Rosettina
The size and number of the rosette images changes depending on the proximity of the viewer. (sold)
HexagonSelected for People's Gallery at City Hall -- Austin (sold)
(sold)
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High Rise
High rise is a complex sculptural piece including multiple lights, a full-length mirror, two reflective grids, a full-length, double sided media storage tower, and a painted mesh panel, all inside a finished wooden cabinet. The piece is triangular in shape, with a panel dividing the front and back. The tower rests in the front section. The mirror behind it doubles its image. The reflective side panels fragment the image inside, creating a grid of great complexity (see detail top right). A lamp shines directly down upon the tower, through a small mesh panel painted in three colors. If you stand close to the tower, the three colors appear to plunge all the way down the inside, cast upon an ethereal image of the mesh fibers (see detail bottom right). The back section of the piece contains a green florescent lamp whose light seeps into the front section via the reflective grid. Even with the lamps turned off, as in the top right detail, the geometric complexity of the piece is visually rich.
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Steel SpaceThis 32"x20" piece mounts a gray, perforated metal shelf salvaged from Highland Mall in Austin (now an Austin Community College campus) over a painted, more finely perforated metal panel and another perforated panel salvaged from a computer desk, all backed by a sheet of stainless steel. The panels in the center create a dynamic moire, evoking a Persian rug. The stainless sheet picks up an striped, moire-influenced reflection, which is mysterious because the sources of light are sequences of dots.
A Little Box of MoireChromatic Interference (USA)Chromatic Interference recycles walls of a discarded hamster cage. Here's a link to a video: https://vimeo.com/377430961 (sold)
Dimples in the expanded metal layers of Domes create a swirling moire effect. (sold) |
FandalaIn this piece, a digitally created printed pattern is mounted behind the screen of an old oscillating fan. An acrylic disc is at the center.
Eye Play On You(sold)
Domes |
VertigoThe moire you look, the moire you see. A perforated metal shelf salvaged from Highland Mall in Austin is mounted over a curved sheet of wavy, painted, corrugated paper, creating a variety of contrasting patterns that shift fluidly with the viewer's movement in any direction. The image of the piece seems to float free of the materials in its own transparent space. The color juxtapositions can create optically illusive color perceptions.
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WaveletI use repurposed materials in many of my projects and often conceive a piece when I happen upon an object of interest. In this case, a wire CD rack is mounted against a wraparound backdrop of painted corrugated paper.
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Wave
A segement of a CD tower is the core of this piece, which places it over three overlapping, ridged, expanded metal modular shelf panels and a backdrop of painted, corrugated paper molded into waves. Among the many effects this piece exhibits: when the viewer moves from side to side, the pattern appears to rush over the wave contours like sand accelerating as it is blown across the peaks of dunes.
See a video of this piece here and another one here. |
Moire Floor Lamp
I mounted a media storage tower on a pedestal in which I embedded an upward-shining light. I shielded the light with painted plexiglas panels at the bottom and inlaid the inside of the tower with four gold strips. With the lamp turned on, the strips appear as columns of gold within the tower. The tower's leaves create a nice moire effect.
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Burst
Burst places an collection of wedges of painted, corrugated paper behind an expanded metal storage bin. Moving even slightly in front of the piece sets loose an image of explosive movement. A video of the piece is here. (sold) |
Spaceball
A construction of expanded metal fits over a backdrop of painted, corrugated paper. An orange band of separated wire arcs between the two, creating a space that becomes very disorienting when moving around the piece. (sold)
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Tray Moire
Painted, corrugated paper and a woven wire tray make this piece tres moire. In the center panel, triangular leaves, one side green and the other orange, slice across the space. (sold)
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Mixing Moire Effects with Reflective Materials
For some time I mixed reflective materials with patterned materials that generate moire effects. Using reflective overlays like the grids of Fanburst and Second Wind introduces complexity to the patterns in the underlay materials. These works capped with reflective grids are best viewed starting at an angle and moving from side to side, rather than gazing straight on.
Click any picture below to see an enlarged image. But to get a much better idea of what the pieces do, check out the linked videos.
Click any picture below to see an enlarged image. But to get a much better idea of what the pieces do, check out the linked videos.
Fanburst
Fanburst is a mixed media hanging sculpture that uses a reflective grid over an arrangement of patterned backdrop surfaces to create elaborate moire effects. The base layer is has a variety of painted and printed papers, topped with a repurposed industrial fan cover, and with a centerpiece of a rim from a dime store vanity mirror, a compact disc, and the cap from a broken holiday tree ornament. The outer layer is a reflective light diffuser for a ceiling fixture. As the viewer moves to the side, the reflective material shifts and mixes the base layer patterns in a way that makes them seem to levitate, free of their media. You can see the effect of moving around Fanburst in this video.
Second Wind
Second Wind is a mixed media hanging sculpture that exhibits a variety of moire effects (interfering patterns). The base layer has a mixture of dyed and printed papers, crowned with an old industrial fan cover. The outer layer is a reflective light diffuser for a florescent ceiling fixture. Connecting the two layers are four striped posts.
Though the piece is structurally static, when the viewer moves around it, a variety of moire and reflective effects simulate movement. The orientation of the fan cover blades projects the red background in one direction and the blue background in the other. The reflective layer creates a mirage-like second image of the background features when viewed at an angle. The first photo shows the piece frontally. The others are details of views from an angle.
See a videos of the piece by following these links: 1) Complete, 2) top detail, 3) center detail, and 4) edge detail.
Though the piece is structurally static, when the viewer moves around it, a variety of moire and reflective effects simulate movement. The orientation of the fan cover blades projects the red background in one direction and the blue background in the other. The reflective layer creates a mirage-like second image of the background features when viewed at an angle. The first photo shows the piece frontally. The others are details of views from an angle.
See a videos of the piece by following these links: 1) Complete, 2) top detail, 3) center detail, and 4) edge detail.
Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Steve Reich
Compact disc storage and a dishwasher racks are mounted behind reflective light diffusers that fragment the background geometry. The dense, rippling image of the Ravel piece evokes his sparkling, fluid piano music. The wire component of the Debussy piece is more curvilinear, giving a more supple image appropriate to Debussy's piano music. The vertical grid lines of the diffuser in the Reich piece are slightly out of phase with the vertical lines of the rack, giving an impression of waves of white lines moving across the piece as the view moves even slightly from side to side. The gold bar appears to fragment and divide. I find this piece very evocative of Steve Reich's splendid phase-shifting music.