2008 “Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit” ( Washington, D.C.)
2008 “Sculpture Now 2008” (Washington Sculptors Group, Annual Juried Show), (Washington Square, Washington, D.C.)
2007 The American Center for Physics (One-Man, Juried), ( College Park, M.D.)
Introduction
My current series is based on fractal forms---the shapes repeating at different scales created by the ongoing processes of Life: such as the branching of plants to catch the sunlight, the convoluted unfurling of clouds, the formation and fracturing of mountains from the forces within the earth, and the jaggedness of the coastline as it interacts with the sea. Life is lumpy, discontinuous, and sometimes chaotic, but it is lumpy and discontinuous in regular ways.
The rhythms and proportions of events and objects, cultural and natural, organic and inorganic, are similar because dynamic complex systems follow some basic rules of organization and co-evolution. All phenomena accumulate and break down according to internal and external interactions that are periodic in similar, if not precisely repetitious, ways. Also, the sheer complexity of a system can lead to both pattern and discontinuity, and behavior can emerge that is unpredictable and greater than the sum of the parts.
Because of the non-linear, reflexive nature of real life, complex processes tend to follow spiral paths. My sculptures all contain spirals that, instead of illustrating any specific phenomenon, grow in the same manner as real complex systems to produce fractal forms.
(from: http://www.zenithgallery.com/Resume,%20Artists/Schaffer,%20Craig.html )
The entire series is based on fractal forms---the shapes created by the ongoing processes of Life, such as the branching of plants to catch the sunlight, the convoluted unfurling of clouds, the formation and fracturing of mountains from the forces within the earth, the jaggedness of the coastline as it interacts with the sea... Because of the non-linear, reflexive nature of real life, these processes tend to follow spiral paths. My sculptures all contain spirals that, instead of illustrating any specific phenomenon, grow in the same reflexive manner as real complex systems.
(from: http://www.craigschaffer.com/main.htm )