Klein Bottle

Gary Hill’s ” Klein Bottle with Image of Its Own Making (after Robert Morris)” from 2014 is on display in bitforms Gallery’s Summer 2017 group show. The glass structure is a 3-D representation of the Mathematical form introduced by Felix Klein in 1882. Related to Moebius strips, Klein Bottles are a sort of vessel where both interior and exterior are all the same continuous surface. They are only truly possible using four dimensions. A video is projected inside the bottle showing the glass structure being formed. This conceptual aspect of the video connected the sculptural work with it’s production relates to Robert Morris’s “Box with the Sound of Its own Making” (1961).

This Summer exhibition at bitforms Gallery provides a sample of the work of artist who will have larger exhibitions next season. i am looking forward to seeing more of Gary Hill’s work.

Susan Happersett

The current exhibition at Pace Gallery takes its name from the Edgar Allan Poe poem from 1848. The press release contains a quote from the poem: “I design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical-of the Material and Spiritual Universe: of its Essence, its Origin, its Creation, its Present Condition and its Destiny…….”

This group show features work form the 1840’s to 2010 that builds a links between science and Mathematics and the artistic spirit. In one of the first galleries there is a copy of Edwin Abbot’s 1884 book “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”. In this novel Abbott creates a two dimensional society and introduces a three dimensional character with interesting results and exciting prospects about further dimensional expansion. Abbott’s art allows his readers to imagine the possibility of a fourth dimension, a Mathematical idea that was very new at the time.

Installed in the largest room of the gallery is Tim Hawkinson’s large rotating sculpture “Gimbled Klein Basket” a wonderful homage to the “Klein Bottle”. A Klein Bottle is an impossible form first introduced by mathematician Felix Klein in 1882. Like a Moebius strip it has only one side, but a Klein Bottle has no boundaries, whereas a moebius strip has boundaries at its edges. Compare to, for instance, a sphere, which has no boundaries either.

Video

The basket structure of Hawkinson’s “Gimbled Klein Basket” creates an interesting grid pattern on the shape, adding another visual element to the form. The hand crafted quality of the object makes it seem as if this shape is actually possible in 3-D. By rotating the sculpture the viewer has a chance to examine the form from all angles.

Installation view of the exhibition, Eureka, Pace Gallery, 508 West 25th Street, New York, May 2–June 27, 2015. From left: Hawkinson, Gimbled Klein Basket, 2007; Siena, Battery, 1997; Jenson, Physical Optics, 1975. Photograph by Tom Barratt, courtesy Pace Gallery.