Adrian Blackwell
The anarchist meeting circle is a basic ordering device for non-hierarchical discussion. A group is distributed symmetrically in a space where each person from his or her unique location can see, hear, and address every other person present. Our world is a sphere, and its shape is often used as a metaphor to describe social and political worlds. The anarchist circle is a social structure primarily interested in discussing the construction of a better world, one that refuses the violent hierarchies that structure early 21st-century capitalism.
Circles describing spheres is a sculpture composed of a series of nested plywood circles (each wide enough to sit on), which are supported on adjustable trestles at quadrants. Similar in form to an armillary sphere, an ancient Chinese and Greek device used to describe the heavenly bodies as they revolve around the earth, the work embodies movement. The trestles allow the circles to be rotated, while the variable relationship of the circles’ heights allows for their arrangement in an unknown number of configurations. These combinations can be used to form different seating spaces: forum, round table, ziggurat, as well as blends of these forms. Over the course of the exhibition, the sculpture will be reconfigured, and each arrangement will be used as a site for conversation about new possible worlds.
