Aker
Sculpture · 2023
- ArtistDavid Spriggs
- LocationPrivate collection, Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada
- Dimensions203 × 203 × 48 cm
80 × 80 × 19 in - MaterialsAnodised aluminium
Aker places a dark circular field within the landscape. Its radiating aluminium planes converge on an empty centre, shifting between aperture, eye, and gravitational form as light and viewpoint change.
The sculpture is organised around a contradiction. Its concentric structure draws vision inward, yet the point of greatest intensity is an absence. The centre does not complete the image. It opens it.
From the front, the separate planes cohere into a continuous radial form. From an oblique position, that apparent unity separates into a measured sequence of edges, intervals, and reflected light. The work moves between image and object without settling fully into either.
The centre as absence
The circular structure recalls an iris or camera aperture, forms that organise sight by controlling what can enter the field of vision. In Aker, the aperture is enlarged to bodily scale. The viewer faces an image of vision whose centre remains materially open.
This void acts as both focal point and interruption. The surrounding planes appear to contract towards it and radiate from it at once, holding inward pressure and outward expansion in a single form.
Landscape and duration
Set within a garden landscape, Aker is read against changing light, vegetation, weather, and season. Its geometric concentration does not withdraw from that setting. It establishes a fixed structure through which the instability of the surrounding world becomes visible.
The dark surface can appear dense and opaque, while the open centre preserves a direct passage to the landscape beyond. Solidity and vacancy remain inseparable.
Perception and structure
The sculpture is formed from precisely cut aluminium planes arranged in diminishing profiles. Their measured spacing produces the apparent curvature of the whole. The construction remains visible from every side, allowing the work to be encountered as a solid architectural presence and as an image continually reorganised by movement.