Three-Phase Cylinder I & II are complementary sine-based shapes, cut from the same 360-sheet block of 100 Micron Clear Film. This work takes as its departure point the ancient concept of the conic section. The origin of conic sections is unknown - the earliest reference we have is in the work of Apollonius of Perga around 200BC. Traditionally, Apollonius and the spate of mathematicians who followed in his footsteps over the centuries, used a cone sliced by a plane to define the circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola. Three-Phase Cylinder departs from the reductivist approach used to isolate these regular shapes and instead flirts with the methodology itself, letting a whimsical curling plane (mathematically defined by oscillating trigonometric functions) intersect three regular cylinders to produce a mathematically inutile set of shapes. The work does not deny reductivism, however. It uses it expressively to play within its rigid framework. It introduces colour which modulates synchronously with the equations of the the sculptural shape, adding another subtly controlled element of artistic freedom within the rigid constraints of the work's underlying modus operandi.
I remember when I was 18 or so I would go to nightclubs in Manchester and take E or acid and shadows shifting up and down the walls swans, red glass purred me to sleep candle at my mum's ornaments...
The show is a reflection of Liu Bolin's multifaceted and complex view of contemporary society and culture. The critically acclaimed and internationally renowned artist will release the first works of a new series, Hiding in California.
