World-renowned sculptor George Hart believes mathematics and art go handin-hand, utilizing both last week while working with students from Haliburton Highlands Secondary School (HHSS) and the Haliburton School of Art + Design (HSAD) to create a new piece for the Haliburton Sculpture Forest.
The hyperboloid structure was carefully and meticulously designed by Hart over a period of several months, with students helping to piece it together Oct. 2 and 3. The metal rods keeping it together were welded in-place by Marc Puigmarti, a former HSAD instructor, with the finished product installed at the sculpture forest Oct. 4.
Jim Blake, curator of the Haliburton Sculpture Forest, said Hart’s creation is an interactive installation – encouraging the community to check and test it out in-person.
“This really is a one-of-a-kind addition to the forest,” Blake said. “When George and his wife, Elizabeth, came up in the spring I thought we were going to get one of his big sphere-like sculptures that he’s known for, but on their drive up they pivoted and suggested something like that wouldn’t have the right kind of impact in an outdoor space. We had talked before, I had said the best pieces are the ones people can engage with, so he came up with this design that people can walk through.”
Hart has more than 100 public sculptures on display around the world, mostly at post-secondary institutions, such as MIT, Berkeley and Princeton universities in the U.S., Queen’s University in Kingston, Middlesex University in the U.K., Aalto University in Finland, and the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain.
The display in Haliburton is likened to a bamboo hyperboloid he completed for the University of British Columbia a few years ago, though
Blake said this was the first time the artist had used metal to complete this style of build. Blake said the structure, named Quadratic Whisper, has been in the works for about a year – after he met Hart in Haliburton in summer 2024.
“His wife was doing a course here and George came with her, he brought a piece for the faculty show and it was really incredible. His pieces look so simple, but the math and planning involved is so detailed,” Blake said.
Asked how he’s been able to mesh two fields most would deem opposites, Hart said it’s something he’s been doing his entire life.
“They both involve creative problemsolving, appreciating beauty and different kinds of aesthetics,” Hart said. “Math looks at patterns and different types of structures and the relationships between things, but so does art.”
Blake said it was a good opportunity for the 25 HSAD and 15 HHSS students in attendance to work alongside someone at the peak of their field.
Hart led a workshop Oct. 3 helping students to design their own hyperboloid model.
“It’s our job to educate the next generation, to get people to see the beauty of math, appreciate the cultural enrichment you can find in art and see the connection between the two,” Hart said.
