Curator’s Note: Adit

Artist: Jonathan S. Hooper

(African Blackwood and resin)

In Adit, Hooper introduces a series of deconstructed "Platonic" cube* sculptures. As maquettes or at a monumental scale, these works operate as profound philosophical inquiries into the interplay between formal geometry, material memory, and spatial displacement.

Tectonics and Thermodynamics

The series title—Adit—invokes the horizontal opening to a mine-working; not just a point of access but a means of illumination and ventilation. While conceptually grounded in the fractured, excavated landscape of Hooper’s native Cornwall, the work quickly ascends from regional narrative to confront a universal, cosmic absolute: the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Here, Hooper establishes a palpable tension, exploring the immutable cosmic slide toward maximum entropy and humanity's attempts to arrest this progression through mineral extraction. He mediates this uneasy, often self-defeating relationship by reframing entropy: not as a chaotic collapse, but as a “patient trajectory towards a final, perfect equilibrium”.

The Fractured Cube and Quantum Uncertainty

With this philosophical inversion in mind, the displaced planes of Adit capture what Hooper terms "the momentary possibility of balance." By disrupting the absolute symmetry of the classical cube, the artist introduces a compelling paradox. The aperture driven through the dislocated sections appears to be the structural element that locks them together, giving coherency to an otherwise unstable geometry; freezing the configuration in time and space.

The converse can also appear true—that the perfectly cylindrical absence is intrinsically vulnerable, its absolute symmetry dependent on a fleeting alignment, subject to forces far beyond its control. Through this perceptual ambiguity, the sculpture ceases to be a static object and instead behaves like a probabilistic event, introducing a compelling dimension of quantum uncertainty. The apparent stasis of our structured world is poetically revealed to be merely an illusion born of our fleeting perception of time; permanence being exposed as a temporary, statistical anomaly.

Tuned Space and Dark Matter

The selection of African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) casts the medium as an active intellectual participant in the dialogue between material and form. Renowned for its extreme density and historic role as a prized musical tonewood, the material introduces an inherent acoustic dimension. Hooper exploits this property to articulate his concept of "tuned space", wherein the aperture becomes an acoustic chamber—a resonator for the hidden energy and information of the void. Furthermore, the light-absorbing darkness and density of these sculptures form a natural continuum with Hooper's Dark Matter works on paper, collectively evoking the deep mystery of the as yet undetected stuff of the cosmos.

Phenomenological Scale and Suspension

By suspending these dense, dark geometries upon translucent resin plinths, Hooper isolates the sculptural mass, staging a dramatic material duality. The base acts not only as a visual anchor for the shifted frameworks above but also alludes to the minerals extracted from this energetic mass. In this dialogue, the artist creates a counterpoint that simultaneously animates the void at the sculpture’s core and the negative space surrounding it.

Ultimately, the Adit series functions as a profound meditation on the friction between human order and cosmic inevitability. Hovering between intimate maquette and monumental intervention, these sculptures do not merely occupy space; they structure it—offering a blueprint for how we might harmonise with both raw natural topographies and built urban environments. Hooper’s elegant, arrested geometries challenge us to look past our perceived boundaries and confront the resonant gravity of a changing world. Through their patient, enigmatic stillness, they invite a deep, phenomenological engagement, drawing the viewer into the sublime weight of time, space, and inevitable transformation.

* The cube is the Platonic solid traditionally representing the element of earth, stability, and unyielding mass.