Hands Icosahedron

Hands Icosahedron is an Interactive Performance and Installation with Public Participation created at the Armory Show in New York City on March 8th, 2020. The world shut down around me during and after the performance. Prior to the day of the performance I worked in nearby park to create the sculpture and to test its feasibility so it doesn’t collapse on people as they painted.

The above video was titled "The Eagle Has Landed" because the work reminds me of the lunar lander.

This work and particularly the installation started a long time ago, in my diary book as little sketches but also as a small model made out of drinking straws, and developed over months.

It was really amazing to see people painting at the Armory Show even holding napkins. Artists who took part in the Armory show came out to paint, passers by, friends, joggers, art lovers of all ages and walks of life. Thank you all for painting and for being there to celebrate art and color.

Also - Thank you so much to my photographer who had to deal with changing dates and the weather and my work turning into a kite and all kinds of things, it was amazing to be there together. Thank you so much for putting up with changing dates as you know March 7th was a really windy day, and also a very cold day, so it would have turned into a kite chasing adventure, so thank you so much for agreeing to change the dates and having an amazing day on March 8th.

Most of the installations and performances I do are gorilla style, meaning I prepare for the worst case scenario - being asked to leave - and then play it by ear by simply talking to the authorities when they show up or ask questions. I design with mobility and quick turnaround in mind, and keep this mindset during performances. I am with the mindset that generally people will leave you alone if you make basic considerations not to obstruct fire lanes, traffic etc. I focus all the controversy on the work and not on interactions with the authorities. I am always ready with my phone and website in hand to show police officers and security if asked.

As you know due to security at the Armory Show - Show Security, parking attendants, NYC Park Service, NYPD and the fire department, and the bomb squad - all showed up and I had a nice chat with all of them and everyone was really nice. It really is a great thing that I showed up early and had the opportunity to meet everyone and everyone got to know me. We really had the cutest dog as the bomb-sniffing dog - basically I was working in the middle of the lawn and then I looked up and I saw an animal, a dog with a big sign across his chest saying "BOMB", and then I looked up and there was this bulky guy and of course I had to ask are you a cop and he says yes I'm a cop. The dog ended up sniffing around me and maybe not my bags :). Both the cop and the dog were really friendly we eventually ended up being friends.

The only request I had to comply with was with the New York City Parks, the only complaint was that I was not supposed to tie anything to a tree branch or a tree, everything else was fair game. Well on March 7th I had very strong winds and everything turned into a balloon and kite adventure so I had to tie everything to a tree. I had to keep everything tied to the tree to prevent everything running into and rolling into traffic. In addition to taking into account the strong winds, of course I had to deal with the cold. I had to work during fairly cold weather so I ended up wearing all the clothes I own and of course catching a little bit cold so hopefully not the #covid virus. Over the course of several days working at the Armory I became friends with a lot of the supporting staff, and they ended up helping me dismantle my stuff at the very end - thank you so much!

Of course as with most of my work there are no coincidences and random things, the Icosahedron and platonic solids have been in my drawings since the very beginning, I recently completed a little book of hands and solids, and this is the giant continuation of that. Scale really is a fun thing.

The final month leading up to the Armory show I worked in the nearby Clinton DeWitt Park so I could figure out what the sculpture is going to look like, I worked on the engineering, also on the particulars of making it mobile, something I could carry around and move with, but also something that I could construct in the morning and take down in the evening.

Ultimately I constructed it and took it down many times, I also worked on becoming really fast with constructing it.

The entire performance involved constructing the Hands Icosahedron in the morning, doing the performance in the afternoon, and taking the Hands Icosahedron down in the evening. The entire structure fit in a small rolling bag.

I originally planned the performance for March 7th but couple of days before I realized it will be a very cold and very windy day, and wind was really not good for the structure, even making it was difficult in windy conditions because the hands would flap the wind like crazy. The wind was stronger in that particular part of Manhattan so I had to be very very careful with wind, the danger of the whole thing or pieces flying into traffic.

There's a separate work which is a sculpture and involves the paper hands.

This is the most fun work I've ever constructed, it had lots of ups and downs, I even asked in the engineering forum on Reddit and took great suggestions on how to make it more sturdy but keep it light.

A series of day long works I created using the Icosahedron Structure and the Hands. March 7th, The Hands Tent.

Over several weeks and over three days - March 5, 7 and 8 - in front of Pier 94 at The Armory Show I continually re-created the structure every morning and collapsed it in the evening.

On March 5th I decided that March 7th will not be a performance day due to the cold and wind.

On March 7 I made the structure and used it more or less like a Hands Tent for the day which was also pretty funny and produced different reactions in the public, even in animals.

A Husky got really interested in my art. Cute husky @ 0:44 'He never barks!' the owner said. Wait for the barks...

The husky was confused and concerned about the animal (me) caged and inhabiting inside that weird structure. It must have been pretty strange sight for both animals and humans. I wasn’t doing anything in particular but shuffling inside and taking pictures.

I had someone stop by to ask if I was making a political work taking pictures of people from inside the tent. I assured the man I was not going to photograph him for political purposes.

I had a good time hanging out inside the tent and watching over the world from it. People assumed I have some purpose being in it, political or social causes, but the only reason I was there is because I constructed it, tied it to a tree and wanted to spend time in it.

Hands Icosahedron aka Hands Tent

In this particular instance the structure Hands Icosahedron aka Hands Tent partially got its name from the fact that it had to be constantly tied to the tree. A few times it almost turned into a kite so I had to tie it down twice.

Constructing and deconstructing the Hands Icosahedron aka Hands Tent on March 7th. By this time I was already an expert at putting it together and taking it down again.

The Making of Giant Hands Icosahedron in the nearby Clinton De Witt Park

Hands Icosahedron, Hands Plex, sculpture and a wearable lamp shade is pictured here at prototype stage - at DeWitt Clinton park in Manhattan. I was still considering an interesting name like handsplex and at the end went with the most true name.

Most of my efforts went into keeping the vertices together. I performed many stress tests which revealed weaknesses in the structure.

At some point the icosahedron did break but this was okay because in this manner I was able to find the weakest link and strengthen it by doubling the dowels on a suggestion by a Reddit engineer.

Above - performing a stress test. Actually, tying the icosahedron to a tree helped me constructing it. Although I ended up numbering all ends and all I had to do was matching them - keeping the structure together while constructing it proved more challenging than I thought. Tying it to a tree helped with battling gravity. It all wanted to go flat on the ground all the time.

The making of Hands Icosahedron in the studio

Why is that art that I am not making is better than the art I am making? During the making of the Giant Hands blueprint I discovered that I really like the back of the drawing.

Walking on Drawing. It is more fun than you think. A mini performance while making the Hands Icosahedron blueprint.

Hands Icosahedron Sketches

Below - First 3D Prototype of Hands Icosahedron, which will come back in a different version of the Installation - the paper hands are simply too fragile to handle interactively. My work always develops logically from one work to the next, nothing ever happens at random or stroke of luck. It is like a little stream that follows the laws of gravity toward the sea.