Worldart: Kenneth Snelson

“My art is concerned with nature in its primary aspect, the patterns of physical forces in three dimensional spaces.”

He is an artist first and foremost, not a scientist. Still the sculptures and designs of his vocation have brought some light into the science world.

Snelson work takes on a simple design of line, space and dimension with experiencing with raw material such as wire, tubes and cables. His sculptures maintain their structural integrity beyond gravity, in the void of space. Mixing art with science, most of the designs expand the idea of objects in and or around there environment. He even has begun a new style of art called “Tensegrity," a structural balance of webs of steel cables and polished metal cylinders of various modest diameters. Both tension and integrity corporate the construct of the designs much similar to a spider web or a bike tire would hold to configuration. Sneleson tried to explain this idea saying “Temerity describes a closed structural system composed of a set of three or more elongate compression struts within a network of tension tendons, the combined parts mutually supportive in such a way that the struts do not touch one another, but press outwardly against nodal points in the tension network to form a firm, triangulated, prestressed, tension and compression unit.”

Sneleson work is not just 3d objects but also in Atom Animations that he composed from 2007-2009. He has created some outstanding designs in computer graphics and print. He has written this concept of mathematical art in dozens of magazine articles.

http://www.kennethsnelson.net/

http://www.kennethsnelson.net/icons/scul.htm

The Rainbow Arch, 2001 made of aluminum & stainless steel. Simple design made to with nothing more than steel and wires connected to form a rainbow shape arch. Ovoid of color this closed form remains enthralling for the uses of lines and shape. The skeleton of the arch is stringed together with slanted vertical lines moving from corner to corner in a gradual pattern. The movement of the pattern moves the eye back and forth in a rhythmic manner. The inner and outer space also gives the plan a sense of volume. The second example of his work is the Sleeping Dragon. This sculpture also uses the same material of steel wire in metrical lines. The Sleeping Dragon, however doesn’t take on a simply shape that one would see in nature but more of animated style of movement common to Chinese dragons or snake. Reaming a closed form the lines move along its plane side to side in unison. The lat piece is the Needle Tower which is part of the collection Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. Looking up to it forms a star shape very similar to the Star of David. When asked if that was his intention he replied “although the double triangle is there to be sure. The six pointed star often seen in my sculptures is not intended as a symbol of any kind; nor are the many crosses. Six pointedness in this case comes out of the natural geometry of three elements (compression struts) at each layer or module. The sets of three alternate with right with left helical modules, adding up to six when seen looking up through the tower for example. It’s for that reason you see a six pointed star. A five pointed star would be a challenge since dividing five by two gives only two and a half. Two and a half compression members doesn’t compute.”