Silver Ziggurat

1969

61 x 23 cm base diameter at widest

Silver-nickel wire wound acrylic cylinders on turntable.

The separate spatial changes made to the cylinder appear along the light line as a related continuum. The most important aspect of their relationship is their spacing, which appears to determine velocity. The cylinder revolves at a constant speed, allowing the entire surface of the form to be seen by an immobile viewer in one continuous flow.

Changes in the spacing of the marks on the surface of the cylinder directly influence the apparent velocity of the line of light. Lijn realised that what she was seeing was four-dimensional: it revealed a direct correlation between space and time.

Photographs by Richard Wilding