Sand Circles and Light Installations

Sand Circles

Expansion 2005

I chose this design after figuring out how to make the yin yang a long ways back. The yin yang is an idea that is both hackneyed and ever-relevant, suffering from stimulus exhaustion and yet as impactful as the concepts it embodies. The concepts that the yin yang embodies are ones that need to be in our awareness. So I repackaged the classic form and in so doing added a new element - dimension, which speaks to the levels and nested layers through which we come into our experiences. Processes within processes.

Where the yin yang speaks to simplicity, my version speaks to complexity.

Molecules 2005

This is the first design that has 3 dimensions (or at least seems to). Interestingly, it's a retake on my very first large design, which I did without rhyme or reason (see the last one on this page). This piece is a study of the impact of a super simple deisgn set within a context. The context here is within a cluster, which gives the overall image a feeling. It’d be cool to do a whole bunch of these as if they were coming out of the ocean all down the beach.

Woven Star

A clean simple design. The guidelines, the underlying template, is visible as scratches in the sand.

Celtic Weave 2005

I am fascinated by Celtic design. This was my first attempt at a real eye-twister. I left an imperfection (for you to discover), because only the divine is perfect.

Stars

This was a test to see what a small, repeated pattern along the beach looked like. This was with 3 of us and it took 2 hours. With several teams of people, we could cover a significant portion of the beach. That’s for a future project….One thing I love about this piece is that the pattern of the circles only became apparent once enough stars were made. One pattern defining another - Awesome!

Light Installations

These next images are of deco setups for parties.

Labyrinth

This is the entranceway to the hall that leads to the Star Hallway. My contributions are the floor plate, which is a frosted image of a Native American labyrinth design, lit by shifting LED colors, and the wall-mounted Eye of Torus which is outlined in electro-luminescent wire and features a color changing pupil.

LA

This deco is done entirely with reusable pieces from my collection of parts. They are like legos, capable of creating larger structures. When I don’t know conditions, I bring a set of customizable parts and see where inspiration takes me.

‘Sphere’ at One, Los Angeles 2004. This was a fundraiser event for Alex Grey’s Temple of Sacred Mirrors. This Sphere contains two other shapes within it, so it is quite dense.

Meteor

Star Hallway

This is a permanent installation in the house of the eccentric circus producer, Gregangelo Hererra. It is a short hallway that leads into a pyramid.

New Year's

New Year's Eve deco 2003 for Tantra. Consisted of a 17' pyramid DJ structure with several satellite hangings.

Alien 2003

This is around a 3’ disco ball, its ‘eyes’ protruding from the webbing - nice!

Statement of Intent

Everything in existence is a consequence of the pattern of energy flow. From the very smallest level of quarks to the very highest level of galaxies, the pattern of energy flow is at the heart of being. We are surrounded by pattern, saturated in pattern, composed of patterns - the patterns that form our cells, the patterns of our bodies, the patterns of our thoughts. When we distinguish a pattern, we are indirectly experiencing the forces at work responsible for them. We often only know something based solely from the patterns left behind. The bulk of my artistic pursuits revolves around seeking the essence of the patterns of nature, the heart of the motion that instigates being. I bring this search into all my pursuits - dance, music, art, and, ultimately, life.

I am also inspired by the concepts of digital and analog and of the place where one becomes the other. Analog (continuous, seamless) and digital (units, discrete events) are two perspectives from which to view the nature of reality. Can existence be reduced to a finite number of slices with a fixed number of things or is there no end to the possible resolution? For example, much of what we experience seems continuous and yet our eyes see fewer than 30 frames per second, the reason a film reel works. We experience snippets of the ‘actual’ event. When a song recording is digitized, slices of the experience are removed, its essence is approximated.

In the search for creative ways to express my concepts of reality, I am drawn to optical art-illusions and effects. In particular I enjoy playing with how the eye sees shape and color, forming an image of the experience in our heads. We are easily fooled, our brains perceive reality in ways limited by our biology. My Light Sculpture series explores this realm of color, negative shape, and form. Ephemeral, morphing shapes of shifting colors result. My Light Sculptures are composed of individual strings, yet an overall unbroken form is perceived. Relative ratios of color (I only use three) create a whole rainbow palette that shifts as a sculpture moves.

The Sand Circles series was inspired by the crop circle phenomenon in England. In these explorations I seek geometric relationships that speak to forces in nature. I create large-scale works on the beach, creating a focus of contemplation and thought energy, and then watch how people respond, how they interact with the formations. Done between tides, the designs are gone within several hours, and often begin eroding immediately after finishing them, gone without any trace, like the sand paintings of cultures around the world.

The name of my company, ‘Analogia’, stems from a Greek word for proportion, which is the way that one thing relates to another thing. The Golden Spiral, the template upon which so much in nature is built, including the sizing of the human body, is nothing more than a proportion. The Golden Spiral describes a specific number, which, if followed repeatedly, generates the spiral or equivalently harmonious shapes. For me, Analogia describes the process of becoming, not the goal or act, but of the continuous inner transition that enables the process. This principle is a thread weaving my artistic pursuits.

- Andres Amador Dec. 5, 2005

Contact: andres@analogia.org
Website: analogia.org