Sculpture System 5 — Edmund Harriss

Sculpture System 5 at sunset on Heimaey, the Eyjafjallajökull eruption cloud rising pink across the water behind it — Heimaey, May 2010.

Sculpture System 5 is a modular construction kit for building large geometric sculptures, made in collaboration with artist and fabricator Richard Grimes. The system is twenty identical CNC-milled plywood pieces. Each piece is a loose triangle — its edges rounded into curves that slot through each other. A rod sealed in by wooden disks completes a hinge.

Sculpture System 5 snow-packed on the Eldfell lava field, the outer islands of Vestmannaeyjar behind, December 2009 — After the Icelandic winter, December 2009.

There is no blueprint for what the sculpture will look like. The form is chosen at construction time, constrained by the requirement that the surface closes and that there is no symmetry. This gives some constraint pushing for more interesting designs. A group of people with no architectural experience can build something coherent and striking together, guided entirely by what works.

The first sculpture was installed on the Eldfell lava field on Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, in April 2009, cut at Fab Lab Iceland with Smári McCarthy as local facilitator. It remained there for several years. In May 2010 it was photographed against the ash cloud of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

A second sculpture was built live at the Newcastle Maker Faire in March 2010, assembled over two days in front of visitors, and then shipped to the JamJar collective in Leeds. Supported by a grant from the LMS.