Craftman`s Model- Microcosm

Craftsman’s model- Microcosm
1999
Glass, Steel, Cotton rope, Distilled water, Natriumchlorid, Copper II sulfate, Amoniumchlorid, Aluminiumkaliumsulfat dodekahydrat, Kaliumhexazyanoferrat II trihydrat, Amoniumiron II Sulfate hexahydrat, Nickel II sulfate hexahydrat

With Pythagoras came the discovery of the golden ratio and its philosophical conception called the Golden mean. The Greeks observed obsessively the golden ratio in many parts of the ordered universe both large and small.
Philosophically, the Greeks were concerned with a rational explanation of everything and saw the repetition of the golden mean throughout the world and all levels of reality as a step towards a unifying theory. In short, it is the recognition that the same traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from Macro to Meso to Microcosm, (In Soccer ball lingo meaning- Stars, house and atom- or the Norway coastline allegory that I mentioned in connection to the Macrocosm work).
For Plato lacking electron microscopes and other useful contemporary tools his reasoning was purely based on logical thinking and mathematics. His reasoning logical follows that the smallest possible particle (atom) is a triangle, following that can arranged to form the five Elements (Platonic solids).
In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex regular polyhedron. These are the three-dimensional analogs of the convex regular polygons. There are precisely five such figures; they are unique in that the faces, edges and angles are all congruent.
These are the following.
Tetrahedron/ fire (4 faced), Hexahedron/ earth (6 faced), Octahedron/ air (8 faced), Dodecahedron/ ether (12 faced) and Icosahedron/ water (20 faced).
For the installation Microcosm I was searching for specific chemicals that would inherited within their arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules the ability to crystallize in shapes that represent the visual representations of the five platonic solids.
The process that I was aiming at was to dissolve the chemicals in distilled water and let them regenerate over a long drying process on large glass plates. The process of forming a crystalline structure from a fluid or from materials dissolved in the fluid is often referred to as crystallization. Crystalline structures occur in all classes of materials, with all types of chemical bonds. While the term "crystal" has a precise meaning within materials science and solid-state physics, colloquially "crystal" refers to solid objects that exhibit well defined and often pleasing geometric shapes
Now this was soon obvious to be a very immature thought, because this could only happen
in three of the desired shapes and further- to have a perfect symmetrical growing process could be only achieved in zero gravity environment.
For the installation Microcosm I was working in co-operation with the Institute of inorganic chemistry in Muenster that advised and assisted me in my research.
The chemicals I was using where able to crystallize in special regular solids somewhat close to the platonic (or ideal) forms.
After documenting the process, six of them where hanged in the space forming a halve circle around the seventh that was presented as a table. During the exhibition I let drops of Cooper II sulfate saturated solution fall onto this particular one to visualize the process of becoming.
The ingredients where presented in glass vessels in a corner of the same room.