Wells Art Contemporary

I recently submitted, for the first time, to Wells Art Contemporary, which is an annual international art exhibition held in Wells Cathedral.  I am delighted to say that my “Mobius T Clef” was selected and so will be on display in this wonderful venue from 5th August to 2th September, 2023. The sculpture is hand carved from birch plywood and stands just over a metre (3 feet) in height.

Mobius T Clef is based on the mobius strip which I remember my grandad showing me when I was a very young child.  If you glue a strip of paper together with a half twist, you have created a 3 dimensional object that has two very thin edges but only one side. Then, if you cut the strip in half lengthways, you don’t end up with two loops, you end up with a longer strip with a full twist. This fascinated me.

The discovery of the Möbius strip as a mathematical object is attributed independently to the German mathematicians Johann Benedict Listing and August Ferdinand Möbius in 1858. However, it had been depicted in roman mosaics from the third century and M C Escher in his Mobius Strips I & II.  The mobius strip does have various practical applications including its use in conveyor belts – the design ensures it gets even wear on both sides (actually it is all one side). The mobius strip has also been used to represent “the infinite” in many ways and so has also been called an “infinity loop”.

I have also, always found the treble clef a pleasing shape and it seemed to me that it would work well as a sculpture in plywood as well as adding a level of interest to the mobius strip form. I also felt that combining the mobius strip and the treble clef represented the potential infinite variation within music. Lesley encouraged me to enter my Mobius T Clef into the Wells Contemporary. She was particularly interested in the exhibition and venue as her Grandad had apparently sung in the Wells Cathedral Choir when he was a boy. So the treble clef motif seemed particularly appropriate.