Set on Abu Dhabi’s waterfront in a dynamic and walkable urban environment, the Four Seasons Hotel is the perfect setting for our pedestrian-oriented sculpture series As Above, So Below. The five-pointed star is decorated with what appears to be a straightforward floral arabesque inspired by Islamic calligraphy. However, the ‘vines’ are created using conic sections – ellipses, parabolas, and spirals – the sort of pathways that stars and other bodies in space would take when guided only by gravity and their own inertia. They are also the pathways taken by subatomic particles after collisions.
The title for the sculptures As Above, So Below suggests that not only do the same laws of nature apply on the scale of the universe as well as on earth but that there is an aesthetic similarity between the motions of heavenly bodies and plant forms on earth. At night hundreds of tiny point source lights inside the sculptures project these calligraphic patterns onto nearby objects and visitors to the hotel.
Date:
2016
Location:
Four Seasons Hotel, Ahu Dhabi, UAE
Dimensions:
75” x 82” x 73”
Media:
stainless steel, electronics, LED lighting
Commissioning Agency:
Art Advisory Services
Artist:
Joe O'Connell