An Interval Connection

Subtle Gesture, SUSAS (Shanghai Urban Space Art Season), Shanghai, China,
Curated by Yan Wu
2015

An Interval Connection is based on a common six-piece interlocking puzzle known historically by various names including Lu Ban Locks (Lu Ban suo 鲁班锁). Lu Ban was considered a master of wood joinery and named the patron saint of carpentry who lived during the spring and autumn period (770 BC – 476 BC). The solution to the puzzle is to combine all six pieces into a double cross that contains no internal voids. It requires finding not only three correct pairs for all three axes but also the correct sequence to assemble the puzzle.

Working on these puzzles can develop a stronger understanding of complex spatial relationships and while the pieces in this public sculpture are too large to manipulate with the hands, visually imagining how they might be assembled to uncover a solution might provide a stimulating companion activity to the state of rest that the current scale of the sculpture invites.