Conrad Shawcross's Paradigms are an ongoing exploration of the tetrahedron, geometrically a four-sided non-tessellating form and conceptually the symbol of an indivisible unit of matter. As a building block, the tetrahedron behaves as an irrational number, creating sequences that in theory, extend into infinity without repetition. Major examples include: Paradigm, 2016, a permanent installation commissioned by the Francis Crick Institute in King's Cross, which is one of the tallest public sculptures in central London; and Exploded Paradigm, 2018, installed permanently in the atrium of the Norman Foster designed Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The title of the works refers to the notion of the paradigm shift – a leap of imagination that jolts scientific enquiry forwards and collapses pre-existing notions of what is true – identified by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996).
Conrad Shawcross's Paradigms are an ongoing exploration of the tetrahedron, geometrically a four-sided non-tessellating form and conceptually the symbol of an indivisible unit of matter. As a building block, the tetrahedron behaves as an irrational number, creating sequences that in theory, extend into infinity without repetition. Major examples include: Paradigm, 2016, a permanent installation commissioned by the Francis Crick Institute in King's Cross, which is one of the tallest public sculptures in central London; and Exploded Paradigm, 2018, installed permanently in the atrium of the Norman Foster designed Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The title of the works refers to the notion of the paradigm shift – a leap of imagination that jolts scientific enquiry forwards and collapses pre-existing notions of what is true – identified by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996).