Sculptures
Description of the work "Sculptures" by Tamás Waliczky, published in "The Art of the Accident," 1998.
For our normal human perception, which is limited by the linearity of time and the continuity of space, time is a one-dimensional affair. We move along one axis which is defined by the co-ordinates of past-present-future, the present being the only layer of reality that we can actually perceive. And even in this single dimension we are able to travel in one direction only, namely forward.
If we posit time as a fourth dimension, we can imagine a lasting spatial representation of movements in time: a rising hand or a jumping body would leave a lasting trace in this four-dimensional space, constructing a sculptural object that combines all the phase positions that the body passes through in the course of the movement.
In the image sequences of Sculptures, Waliczky has attempted to represent such spatio-temporal structures. On the basis of specially recorded video sequences of fleeting everyday movements and gestures such as walking, jumping, waving, etc., Waliczky built three-dimensional sculptures in the computer. He calls them 'time crystals', as they preserve in frozen form brief moments in an individual's life. These crystals exist simultaneously alongside each other in space, and a virtual camera can observe them from any desired location. By travelling through the time crystals, the camera can re-produce the original movement from a diverse range of perspectives and at varying speeds.
Sculptureswas originally made for Mesias Maiguashca's opera piece, called The Enemies, premiered at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1997. The story of the opera was based on a short story of J.L. Borges, called The Secret Miracle.
