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Móvil “Espiral Fractal”

Rafael Barrios’s Móvil “Espiral Fractal,” 2019, transforms simple geometry into optical illusion. Hanging from the ceiling in the lobby of Dimensional’s Charlotte office, the iridescent blue mobile consists of five rectangles fabricated in lacquered aluminum. In actuality, the volumetric forms are comparatively flat with convex or concave surfaces that generate multiple tricks of the eye. As the kinetic shapes hover in space like a floating staircase, their surfaces optically shift between two and three dimensions. The first part of the title, translated as “mobile,” points to the artist’s interest in Alexander Calder’s suspended mobiles that revolutionized modern sculpture, while “spiral fractal” evokes the infinitely complex patterns found in nature. Linking three of Dimensional’s largest offices, this artwork joins two others by Barrios in the firm’s global collection: Centrifuga, 2012, a static sculpture comprising three illusionistic rectangles in white-lacquered steel, located outside Dimensional’s Austin headquarters, and Contained Energy, 2023, a vertical red stacked sculpture similar to Centrifuga located in Sydney’s reception.

2019

Lacquered aluminum

183.0 x 169.0in

4561

Image and text © Dimensional Fund Advisors, 2023