Form v. Shape is a common discussion within the arts, the former relating to the system of making a composition of the third dimension, while latter refers to the perceptual presentation of an outline. Groundless Figures, uses shape in a systematic manner to create its intrinsic geometry and its structural language. The floating object, is both formally constructed by its graphic via extrusion of the frontal ambiguous contour, but then also decorated in a way that both exaggerates and complicates its cultural identity, with multiple figures embedded in its graphic grid.
The ambiguous shape is constructed from the combination of two cultural forms of linearity, the arc that oscillates from a large radius to one half its size, and the upside down 45 degree chevron, in a similar oscillation. The figure-ground wrestling match, between the grounded mountains and clouds, is amplified by the color differentiation, of Cyan for the sky and the Yellow for the earth. This graphic figure-ground tension is extruded across the site at a 29.1 degree angle to produce a third point column grid, allowing for the cantilever of the corner.
/ Drawings
/ Project Team
Jonathan A. Scelsa, Massi Surratt, Evan Craker, Jennifer Birkeland,
/ Collaborators
Shawn Lutz, SMLA
/ Project Info
/ Project Type - Folly Competition
/ Location - Private Park
/ Client - Circle Acres Nature Preserve
/ Project Date - 2017