Date of Award
Spring 5-15-2023
Degree Name
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Abstract
On the Six-Cornered Snowflake, named after Johannes Kepler’s 1611 essay on geometrically covering surfaces, is both the title of both my final thesis work and essay. Beginning with an inquiry into the nature of hand-made object as intrinsically valuable, my earlier sculptural work surrounding quilting is broken down and considered as a form of reverence for the American object. This is partly achieved through a comparison to traditional Japanese packing techniques and how my own assembly mirrors and converses with the graceful and sensitive packing of Japanese hand-made goods. Early 20th-century flight experiments are also hand-made objects of interest. Their history as tools, but more importantly as failures, introduces more clearly the importance and fascination I have with obsolete objects. The history of these machines, namely Alexander Graham Bell’s tetrahedral kites, serves as the basis for an exploratory body of drawings used to highlight and reappropriate the obsolete machines. These drawings, in a similar fashion to artists Helen Mirra and Roni Horn, approach empirical science with a poetic lens. Through iteration and trust, the body of work orients itself towards a faith in mathematical systems and their miraculous adaptability, ultimately serving as the poetic crux of the work.
Recommended Citation
Hescock, Jackson, "On the Six-Cornered Snowflake" (2023). Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers. 106.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bfa/106