Chris Reilly

Corrugated cardboard / 3 pieces; 6″x6″x7″ each / 2007

Often mistaken in the past for the real thing by inexperienced prospectors, the mineral pyrite–also known as Fool’s Gold– has isometric crystals that usually appear as cubes with a golden, mirror-like surface. Pyrite also frequently occurs as octahedral crystals and as pyritohedra (a dodecahedron with pentagonal faces). Often the crystals form in combination with one another, or in shapes that combine aspects of two crystalline forms.

The 3D models these prints and sculptures originate from are based on the ‘perfect’ crystalline forms of pyrite–singular, regular polyhedra, they lack the irregularities in shape and departures from form characteristic of the real crystals. Mathematically and symmetrically, their forms are more ‘pure’ than their natural counterparts. These aspects of order, logic, and predictability are inherent even in the techniques of 3D modeling, scripting, and digital output used to produce these objects.