Origin

Every measure of Origin comes from one of the simplest figures in geometry: a right-angled triangle with sides of 3, 4 and 5. Builders have used it for thousands of years to set out a square corner, and it is the smallest right-angled triangle whose three sides are whole numbers.

Drawn at its most elementary scale, the whole diagram is built from this triangle. At that scale the square has sides of 11 units, so its perimeter is 44. The great circle is 14 units across, and with π taken as 22/7 its circumference is 44 as well. A square and a circle with the same perimeter: the squared circle, drawn with compass and ruler.

A multiplier then turns this elementary diagram into the sculpture. It comes from the same triangle. Add the sides, 3 + 4 + 5, and you get 12. Multiply them, 3 × 4 × 5, and you get 60. Multiply those two results and you get 720.

Now look at the circles. The small one measures 3 units and the inner one 11, so they stand in the ratio 3 to 11, which is the ratio of the Moon to the Earth, accurate to a fraction of a percent. With the multiplier, one unit becomes 720 miles for the Earth and the Moon: the Moon is 3 times 720, 2,160 miles across, and the Earth 11 times 720, 7,920.

The same multiplier gives the dimensions of the sculpture itself, in inches. Divide 720 by a hundred and it becomes 7.2, so the Moon wheel measures 3 times 7.2, or 21.6 inches, the Earth circle 11 times 7.2, or 79.2 inches, and the great circle 14 times 7.2, or 100.8 inches.

Why build all this into one object?

Origin is a working model of how the world works behind the surface. Underneath what can be seen, the order of things comes down to pure number, and the sculpture makes that visible. Learn more about the geometry