Jessica Stockholder Lumps, Bumps and Windy Figures May 19, 2005–
IHES, Burs Sur Yvette, France
Jessica Stockholder’s artwork, titled Lumps Bumps and Windy Figures and installed in 2005 in the park of the Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies (IHÉS), is based on the Knights Game. French mathematician Jean Brette created this game as the expression of a combinatorial problem introduced in the 1950s by the Norwegian mathematician Albert Skolem. Jessica Stockholder has designed a work that gives a totally new form to this game, which follows its mathematic principle, is both maneuverable and static at the same time, and offers both a space to play and solutions to contemplate.
Monumental in size (nearly 9 by 11 m / 30 by 36 feet), the sculpture is composed of eight volumes that vary in height from 0,30 to 1,50 m (1 to 5 feet), which are set on a grid. The sculpture is made of several different materials: stone, raw and pigmented concrete, brass, steel, bronze and ceramic tiles.
The work comprises two parts. The first part is composed of eight volumes that differ in size, shape, color and material. These volumes form the “knights” of the game, in order to represent, according to four different angles, four solutions among 500 possibilities. Noticing the relationships established between the base of each element and the numbering system reveals the rules of the game.
The second part is movable and allows for play. Stripes of colored concrete are crossed by rails that allow steel bars of different lengths to slide back-and-forth. By positioning these “knights,” the public is lead to find the solutions to the mathematical puzzle.
