How does a drop of liquid tear loose?
No. 73, 1971
(Calculus of variations)
India ink, pencil, and oil on paper, 30x42.5 cm.
As globules of liquid fall from the sky, a series of solid blocks cuts through space, while a person emerges from one of the falling liquid balls. The idea for this image emerged from the mathematics that describes how liquid droplets form and then fall away from a surface. As the drops hang, a neck forms, and eventually they drop away from the surface to which they were clinging. The whole process has a special life of its own, a sequence of events that can be understood and modelled mathematically. In fact, from a mathematical point of view, surfaces that bound hanging drops can create thin capillaries, which are in a sense glued together to form other more complicated and interesting shapes.
