nwp

Found Unfinished Wood

Fabricated using single and double pierce cut patterns with a 187,000 PSI cnc waterjet. Water and garnet streams through the variable densities of full timber wood grain to elicit new markings and geometries. Zero-waste processing keeps the positive and negative profiles maximizing the use of material. Flip double cuts allow for intersecting volumes to interlock as puzzling universes to be unpacked and repacked. The photos by artist Sahra Jajarmikhayat provide context for landscape application. Seen without scale the forms propose monuments to store the artifacts cut by water.

2023-2025

Photographed by Sahra Jajarmikhayat

Fabrication in Collaboration with Marin Made

2015-2020

Single pieces of hardwood are cut using geometric patterns to erode the material, allowing for light and air to pass through and for them to flex, warp and deform into springs, splays, grids, and splits. Each piece is made using a series of tools ranging from the scroll saw, band saw, table saw, and water-jet cutter. Each piece is a repetitive, methodic meditation in patience and precision frozen at the brink of failure.

This work is part of an ongoing investigation that began in MIT’s fabrication shops. While testing and calibrating tools, Nick was finding the limits of performance. Nick is in direct conversation with the wood. Solid States was funded by Autodesk’s Pier 9 in during his Art Residency. Nick is currently working out of a woodshop in the Fairfax, CA with support from Marin Metal Works.

inquiries:

nick.polansky@gmail.com

Work made during the Pandemic

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4 month artist residency

2015

“The Calculus of Consciousness and Subconsciousness”

July 10th – August 22nd, 2021

Solid States

This series demonstrates an ongoing fascination with geometry, material, and technology. A range of conventional saws as well as digital mills and waterjets were used. Blade width cuts transform the properties of wood from stiff and opaque to soft and transparent. The work is a three-way conversation between the tool, the material and the artist. It is the aesthetic of craft. Nick Polansky’s long history with shop tools and prototype methodologies have led to a thematic exploration with numerous variants.

These four families GRID, SPLAY, SPIT, SPRING confront the limits of form, under tension, and in balance, bringing each piece of wood to its limit of existence. Multiple species are used eliciting different tone, grain, and deformation. The wood mediates light and air, multiplying states of opacity from all angles. The work is both exquisite and sublime, using geometry to program wood over time, illuminating the performance at play. Standing like miniature buildings, the show displays a field of forms with inherited traits.

Storefront Gallery Space

Winter / Fall 2021

Temporary Installation

by appointment only