CAT’S CRADLE

Games often involve processes similar to language creation and act as a point of transition between the written and the visual. In this project I was looking at Cat’s cradle — a children’s game, where through joint action between two participants a loop of thread is transformed into a series of intricate patterns.

The objects are made from bent steel rods and are based on the five typical string patterns of the Cat’s cradle game. Their visual similarity to letters and our failed attempts to ‘read’ the characters pose the question: at which point of the transition between the written and the visual do we find ourselves? The painted fibreboard plinths imitate the stone texture and set side by side the different connotations of the work — a sculpture, a toy, a game, a language.

a series of five sculptures, each 112x15,5x13cm
steel, fibreboard, paint
(2015)