Unique Original artwork
Artist: Mark Wallinger
Motion Study 3, 2022
ink on paper, 420 x 420 mm, framed.
Brief description from the artist:
I recently began a series of drawings using marbles that had been dipped in ink. Simply dropped onto the square paper, around which I constructed a frame, the marbles bounce and ricochet off each other and the ‘edge’ of the paper. The action is swift and explosive, as the ink covered marbles trace their own movements. The resultant drawings therefore describe the physical laws of motion as outlined by Isaac Newton; the straight lines radiate from their initial collisions until with the loss of momentum occasioned by friction, spin, and air resistance, they begin to describe curves until they come to a standstill.
They were inspired by spending some time on St James’s Church on Piccadilly and cognisant of the fact that Isaac Newton was a regular worshipper there (and lived a stone’s throw away at 87 Jermyn Street).
Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), originally published in 1687:
Paraphrased in two slightly different ways thus:
- A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, unless acted upon by a force.
Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.
- When a body is acted upon by a force, the time rate of change of its momentum equals the force.
The change of motion of an object is proportional to the force impressed; and is made in the direction of the straight line in which the force is impressed.
- If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude but opposite directions.
To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.
Proceeds of this sale will help support Hastings Contemporary at this challenging time.