Tim Povall is an origami artist based in Vancouver, Canada. With a PhD in Physics, he is fascinated by the mathematical complexity of origami. He is intent on sharing with the world the abstract beauty of geometric forms in folded paper.
Artist’s statement:
My current work is an investigation of non-repeating geometric patterns. I use these patterns to design tessellations of folded paper. The tessellations are made up of series of curved twists in the paper and each one is folded from a single sheet.
The geometric patterns I am exploring are called “aperiodic tilings”. They are tilings with a pattern that does not repeat. Penrose tilings are the most well-known of these tilings. I use Penrose and other aperiodic tilings to design my pieces.
My pieces explore the aesthetics of symmetry. The aperiodic tilings that I am studying lack translational symmetry, which is common among tilings. The consequence of this lack of symmetry is that the tessellations look almost random. The tessellations do have other kinds of symmetry such as rotational and reflection symmetries.
I find that curved creases, as opposed to straight creases, impart an impression of motion. I think this is because collections of curves often look like waves. In addition to the pure tessellation pieces, I also make pieces that exploit the impression of motion that the curved creases impress on the viewer, for instance a piece called Crashing Waves.