Fractal Relativity I

Edition 2/12

This artwork, developed specially for the Marvel: 10 years of Heroes exhibition, takes its inspiration from both M.C. Escher’s work, and the spectacular geometric and architectural constructions used in the movie Doctor Strange.

Between 1938 until his death in 1972 M.C. Escher investigated spatial representation and made constructions which question how we understand space – including Cycle 1938, Up and Down (1947), Relativity (1953), and Concave and Convex (1955), the last of which will be shown alongside this work. All were shown in the Art Science Museum in 2017.

Doctor Strange’s designers have made clear in documentaries and interviews their inspiration from M.C. Escher. Additionally, geometrical figures are a primary motif through the movie, using sacred geometries that refer to mandalas and charms, which through history have been used for religious symbolism and architecture.

This work combines architecture, mathematics and spatial representation. A 6-fold hexagonal geometry is used as the basic structure for the artwork. This is developed into a fractal grid, which is filled out using self-similar pieces that reduce in size, potentially to infinity. Like “Relativity” there is no up and down, instead 3 parallel worlds inhabit the space, where the X, Y and Z axes are interchangeable.

At each spatial cell within the world, the fractal structure branches, and the worlds bifurcate. This can be read as an infinity of possible worlds, yet it can also be read as a kind of architectural planet and spatially continuous with its inhabitants able to wander from one cell to the next.