Perpetual Motion
A white vortex turns stillness into the image of continuous, unresolved movement.
- Artist
- David Spriggs
- Date
- 2008
- Dimensions
- 72 × 28 × 51 cm
28.5 × 11 × 20 in - Materials
- White paint on layered transparencies in a display case
Perpetual Motion gives optical plausibility to a physical impossibility. A white current circles a dark void, appearing to rotate without source, expenditure, beginning, or end. The image is materially still, yet its rhythm keeps the eye in motion. It appears continuous despite being distributed across separate planes and empty intervals.
The void at its centre is both absence and apparent cause, the point around which the surrounding energy organises itself while withholding any explanation of where that energy originates. As the viewer moves, the vortex coheres and disperses, so motion passes from the represented form to the act of perception. The work does not depict a machine that can move forever. It locates the desire for endless movement within an image that vision itself must continually renew.
Stillness and duration
The vortex draws vision inward while its repeated arcs imply indefinite duration. As the viewer moves, the coherent spiral separates into spatial planes. The work makes that transition visible, holding illusion and its dissolution within the same encounter.