Quite a few elaborate art projects have managed to liven up a plain white room (oft with bizarre things like geodes and tiny wooden tiles), but perhaps none has been able to transform every single inch of an empty space quite as simply and beautifully as Intersections, the geometric sculpture by Indiana-based artist Anila Quayyum Agha. The work has actually just won both the jury and public grand prizes at the sixth annual international ArtPrize competition, a first in the history of the event.
Dangled in the center of a large, high-ceiling room at the Art Museum of Grand Rapids in Michigan, Agha's six-and-half-foot cube has been laser-cut intricately from black lacquer wood so that the light from the bulb inside casts shadows on all faces of the room. As Agha explains in her project statement, the complex patterns are just like those found in Islamic sacred spaces, while the cuts on the wooden frieze are adapted from a pattern found in the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. Agha writes it's "a place where Islamic and Western discourses met and co-existed in harmony." As lovely as the piece looks in this particular room, it would be nice to see how the effect plays in spaces of different shapes and sizes—petition for a traveling show, anyone?
· This Gorgeous Sculpture Creates Instant Architecture in an Empty Room [Slate]
· All Artistry posts [Curbed National]
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