Conrad Shawcross

Conrad Shawcross is a British artist renowned for his large-scale sculptures and installations that explore themes of science, philosophy, and the passage of time. Known for his intricate use of geometry and mechanics, Shawcross creates works that engage with human perception and the unknown.

Five Harmonic Loop System Studies - Horizontal (The Second, Major Third, Fourth, Fifth and Major Sixth) (2005) is an installation of 5 screens each showing what the artist calls “time spliced video recordings”. Each screens shows documentation of the movements made by Loop System Quintet (2005), a group of five oak machines which each ‘draw’ a different ‘knot’ of light in space.

The shape of the knot is predetermined by the ratio of the cogs connected by a single drive-shaft that moves the machine-like sculpture. These ratios are directly related to formal theories of musical harmony (Harmonics). The resulting drawings in light can usually only be seen as the machines rotate – but here they are captured and act as visual transcriptions of musical chords (hence the title).

The sculptures are hardly visible, footage is crafted of multiple images edited together seamlessly, producing a long, continuous shot that showcases the choreography of the sculpture not the machine itself, emphasizing the fluidity and artistry of the line it draws in space. Shawcross has said that the machine itself is ‘useless, a folly’ but its creation is a fleeting visual phenomena, captured by technology.