DAY 308

UNEXPECTED ART FORMS

Morpho Towers

THE MAGNETIC ART OF SACHIKO KODAMA

At times, Sachiko Kodama’s work resembles a great, spiny caterpillar crawling and heaving itself forward toward another branch. A minute later, it simulates the flow of magma from an active volcano. What, for a moment, looks like a nest full of hungry birds gawking upward may suddenly transform, evoking the flawless movements of some otherworldly dancer.

Morpho Tower by Sachiko Kodama, 2006. © 2006 Sachiko Kodama. All rights reserved.

Kodama’s fluid, ever-changing sculptures look like something created by computer-generated graphics, born of the imagination of a sci-fi writer. But each configuration is real and tangible—if only for a moment.

The artist’s creations are formed by a magnetic, oily liquid known as “ferrofluid,” flowing around a housing device and manipulated by a series of electromagnets located within the structure. The electrical charges create seemingly endless series of patterns that present themselves in an ebb and flow of spikes. The spikes emerge, rotate, change directions, grow, and disintegrate.

In some sculptures, such as Protrude, Flow and Breathing Chaos, the movement of the coursing ferrofluid appears wild and bestial. The “Morpho Tower” series, in contrast, involves various conical towers on which the spikes flower and molt with hypnotic harmony.

In stride with the enigmatic nature of these creations, Kodama asserts that her exact technique is a secret. —DJS