Spring Surfaces

Porcelain sculpture, under glaze painted and glazed

This piece is from a body of work that explores the history of philosophical thought concerned with time. The body of work follows animal guides that represent the cycle of the moon through a landscape of the seasons of a year; moon phases and the seasons are intuitive ways of understanding time. 

A bucket is half-filled with water and suspended by a rope; the rope is twisted and the effects on the water by the spinning bucket when it is released are observed. In the debate about defining notions of space and time as real objects (absolute) or simply as effects on objects (relational), Isaac Newton devised this rotating Bucket Argument in 1689, to explain that all motions in the Universe are absolute, not relative, as the water in the bucket reacts to the spinning - flat water surface at start of rotation; rotation of bucket and water (concave shape); rotation of water still after bucket stops. As the argument limits itself to the water and bucket only, without reference to the earth’s gravity, it is incomplete, according to later theorists. The buckets hung on the Maple trees to collect sap to make maple syrup represent the many arguments used in further theorizing about space and time.

48 x 18 x 45cm

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