Monadnock Tensegrity: 3D printed parts cast in urethane, wire, 2017
Monadnock Tensegrity explores the political metaphor embedded in Buckminster Fuller’s structural principle of tensegrity: isolated compression stabilized by continuous tension. Cast urethane police batons, modeled after Monadnock-brand law enforcement tools, are suspended in space by cords anchored to clenched fists. The rigid batons embody institutional power and state authority; the cords and fists symbolize protest, resistance, and civic engagement.
Neither compression nor tension can function alone. Like tensegrity structures in nature—bones suspended by connective tissue—or in architecture, civic stability depends on distributed strain. The work visualizes how state power requires both the force of its institutions and the restraint of its citizens to remain intact. The visual lightness conceals the tension beneath, where even small shifts threaten collapse.
Monadnock Tensegrity transforms familiar symbols into a precarious geometry of power, implicating viewers in its reflection. Governance, justice, and public trust emerge not from fixed dominance but from this continual, fragile balancing act. The work makes visible the invisible negotiations—between force and freedom, control and consent—that hold societies together
Photo credit: Sarah Wall