Tribal connections
Tribal connections is a sculptural proposal made up of smaller arrangements of ordinary objects placed within a fixed geometric form. The proposed sculpture would be built from the centre outwards, with its final shape emerging through the process of construction.
Nothing is fixed in place. The component objects remain liable to move, fall or collapse; arrangements can be rebuilt, altered or replaced. The resulting tension between an imposed geometry and the instability of its contents is central to the work.
Form and process
The geometric frame might take the form of a cube, cuboid, tetrahedron, pyramid or cylinder. The original notes leave the final geometry unresolved. Within that overall boundary, smaller groupings respond to one another and to the possibility of disruption.
Placing objects without glue or nails means that a collapse does not necessarily end the work: it can become another arrangement, another temporary order. The sculpture is conceived as something that can be repeatedly assembled and reassembled.
Chaos, order and patterns
The project notes compare sculptural arrangement with ordinary actions such as setting a table, ordering photographs or constructing a rhythm. An arrangement may initially appear chaotic, yet become legible as its repetitions and relationships emerge. Conversely, a recognisable pattern can be interrupted by the addition, removal or movement of a single element.
A simple example given in the notes is the sequence oooo/oooox: an x appears to interrupt a pattern, but if the larger sequence repeats, the interruption can itself become part of a new pattern.
Tribal connections investigates this friction between imposed order, apparent disorder and the possibility of reorganisation. The notes also consider the distinction between sculpture and installation: unlike a work that spreads freely through space, the proposed arrangements would remain confined within a chosen geometrical boundary.
The supplied text presents the full-scale geometric sculpture as a proposal and its final form as undecided. The photographs and diagrams document studies of its component arrangements; they should not be read as proof that the definitive sculpture was completed.