Star Burst

Artist's studio, UK

STAR BURST

HEIGHT 15INCHES (38CMS)
STAINLESS STEEL
1996

"our bodies are composed
of star dust"

 

Animation link

 

One of the books that changed my life was written by Professor Fred Hoyle, "Frontiers of Astronomy"*. After reading it I had to buy a 7.5 inch reflector telescope, so I could have a look at the Crab Nebula. The reason for my excitement was the realisation that my body was made of Star Dust! In fact everything that I touched, saw, ate, and loved, all the forms of life that lived on the earth, the whole Solar System, we were all created brothers by Star Dust.

I have not had the pleasure of being able to thank Professor Hoyle personally for changing my life, but I have had the honour of meeting two of the men who helped him with the book, Professors Tommy Gold, and H.Bondi. Professor Bondi was Master of Churchill College Cambridge, when the Symbolic Sculptures were exhibited there in 1990. Tommy Gold has been a personal friend for many years, and did me the honour of attending the unveiling of the three sculptures that were installed outside the Isaac Newton Institute Cambridge in 1996.

How was I to capture the magic of these gigantic explosions, that had created the Star Dust of my Being? It was incredible to think that a tiny amount of this precious material had been lent to me by the Universe for a brief Cosmic flash of a lifetime !

In the Spring of this year, 1996, Damon and Sandra de Laszlo took me and my wife to see Brancusi's "Endless Column" in Targu-Jiu, Romania. It is quite the most spectacular symbolic sculpture ever created. When it was time to leave the park, it happened that the shadow of the 50 foot (17m) high sculpture lay right down the centre of the exit path. When I reached the end of the shadow I turned and looked back. The sun was hiding behind the top step of the Column, causing a great star-burst of light to shoot out all around it. What a sight !
 
Endless Column

Pentagon Stars
Back in the bus I started to make pentagon stars, and by the time I had made three, I realised that twelve would form a Dodecahedron, and make my STAR BURST.

The primary geometric forms are considered to be the crystallizations of the creative thoughts of God, and the human hand, in manipulating and constructing these forms, will learn to position itself in the essential poses of gesture-language.
 
Dodecahedron

* . . . Another book, by Dauber and Muller, titled "The Three Big Bangs", is recommended to anyone who wants to read about Comet Crashes, Super Nova, and the Creation of the Universe.
ISBN 0 201 40752 3.


© Mathematics and Knots/ Edition Limitee 1996 - 2002
This material may be used freely for educational, artistic and scientific purposes, but may not be used for commercial purposes, for profit or in texts without the permission of the publishers.