Hyperbolic surfaces 1959

Tomas Maldonado made this sculpture called Hyperbolic Surfaces with wire and string, and looking at it, I get a feeling that I’m looking at an optical illusion. It’s like the artist is mapping lines of perspective but in three dimensions. The artist probably made calculations and models and mathematical equations, all in the name of visual poetry. I can imagine him constructing this thing very carefully and precisely, and yet the nature of string is that it has some give, it’s a little loopy. It doesn’t quite give you a solid line. It’s a soft line, but the result is a kind of ephemeral geometry. It's like he’s capturing the essence of an object as it moves through space. The artist is in conversation with other makers and thinkers who are interested in how the eye sees and the mind understands.