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Tan Arlidge’s Sacred Geometry
The mathematical patterns found throughout nature undergird Sydney artist Tan Arlidge’s mesmerising new series, which signals an evolution in her technique and use of materials.
Fluid, undulating shapes have long defined self-taught Sydney artist Tan Arlidge’s practice. Her signature use of thermoforming polymer – which involves manipulating heated materials into organic shapes – has helped establish her signature aesthetic and guided her sculptural creations. Arlidge’s latest series, Sacred Geometry, is a continuation of that vernacular, which she mobilises to reflect on the geometric patterns that repeat themselves through nature. It also signals a turning point in her practice, as she brings materials such as steel, Oregon timber and pine into her work.
The 12 pieces that comprise Sacred Geometry meditate on the interconnectedness of all things and the mathematical patterns that underlie them, from the eternal rippling of the ocean guided by the pull of the moon to the wave-like repetition of sand dunes caused by the wind. “The forms and structures I have landed on within this collection deliver a true sense of both tension and concession, with each piece deeply connected to the sum of its parts,” says Arlidge.
Arlidge’s theory is reduced to three base geometric forms: the square, the circle and the triangle, shapes that are a throughline across the series. Sculptures fold in and around themselves and the artist plays with positive and negative space to execute these abstract pieces which, thanks to her manoeuvring of heated polymer, exude motion.
Adding another layer to Arlidge’s work is the debut of organic materials in her practice, which themselves represent these ever-repeating natural rhythms. She heightened the texture of the layered woodgrains in the Dali and Dune totems by deploying yakisugi, an 18th-century Japanese preservation technique that involves charring wood. The wood grains mimic the ripples of sand dunes and contrast with – yet are a continuation of – the undulations of the thermoforming polymer that rests atop the wooden pillars. In another piece, DUNE – Objet, Arlidge doesn’t use polymer at all. Instead, a sphere of mirror-polished stainless steel perches atop a curved block of blackened Oregon timber; a feeling that the ball will roll off the wood at any moment elevates the sense of movement inherent in the work.
In Bonacci, a cycle within the new series, Arlidge has removed circles from the centre of squares to create winglike sculptures that fold around and in on themselves in an elegant flow. These pieces are inspired by the Fibonacci sequence, a series of numbers in which every number is the sum of the two numbers before it. It’s a mathematical principle found frequently in nature: flower petals and seeds, tree branches and even the human body.
Arlidge’s meditations on these organic geometries invite viewers to consider the elemental wonders of nature and how they ripple through our lives.
