Cascade of Reflections
Cascade of Reflections at its new home
Cascade of Reflections at the Cotswold Sculpture Park
The inspiration for this piece came from a Rubik's Cube. I came across one in an old drawer and started fiddling with it. I've never mastered solving it, but I thought I would give it another go.
As I turned it over in my hands, I began to wonder how it might look as a sculpture. I soon realised that recreating the full cube would cause the pieces to clash, so I put the idea aside for a while. Later, it occurred to me that I could focus on just one face of the puzzle—nine individual blocks. That seemed much more workable. However, as I began modelling the design, I decided that rectangular forms worked better than cubes, giving the piece a stronger visual balance while still retaining its connection to the original inspiration.
Size 1.3m high x 1.1m
In Motion
Cascade of Reflections has a wonderfully fluid movement and seems happiest in a chaotic breeze or even a full-blown storm. The constantly changing wind directions allow the individual elements to move independently, creating an ever-changing display of reflections and motion.
The first prototype taught me an important lesson. Although the sculpture moved well, I wasn't completely satisfied with its performance. The lower bearing was carrying the entire weight of the sculpture, which created more friction than I wanted and restricted some of the movement.
Rather than accept that compromise, I went back to the drawing board. I redesigned the central section and incorporated a separate bearing arrangement to better support the weight. This reduced the load on the rotating components and allowed the sculpture to move far more freely.
The improvement was immediately noticeable. The sculpture became more responsive to lighter winds while still remaining stable in stronger conditions. It was one of those occasions where a small engineering change made a significant difference to the final performance.
As is often the case with kinetic sculpture, the challenge wasn't simply creating something that moved—it was creating something that moved well.
The first real world test
Cascade of Reflections is one of those sculptures that never seems to move the same way twice. In a steady breeze it moves gracefully, but when the wind becomes turbulent the individual elements respond independently, creating constantly changing reflections and patterns of movement. It is particularly captivating on bright days when sunlight dances across the polished stainless steel surfaces and spills into the surrounding space.