THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF JIM AMARAL cation with their sculptural values but his awareness that sacred geometry represents the deep connections that exist throughout the universe, its forms and relations establishing codes and sym- bols that prevail as the imperishable seed of the life of matter and spirit. ese new sculptures appear to support the theory that, since everything in the universe is inherently geometric, geom- etry offers a way of understanding who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. His pieces split the viewer’s reflec- tions in two directions, one toward history and antiquity, toward the passage of time, including a past that preceded even the idea of time, and the other toward the cosmos, the infinite, toward a future that goes beyond the end of time and that might be called post-planetary. e sphere, for example, is a form that constitutes the center or endpoint of many of his works. ese are perfect and sen- suously molded forms reminiscent of the proposition that the universe is a sphere whose center is everywhere. ey are visually and physically heavy and bring to mind the Titan Atlas’s punish- ment, though in Amaral’s work they are set in a type of vehicle that appears to make them easier to transport and that recall the carriages in Etruscan bas-reliefs. e combination of sphere and wheel refers directly to the circular concept of time, the idea of cyclical repetition with no implication of a retrogression but rather an infinite advance toward a starting point, a belief com- monly held by polytheistic peoples and a notion repeated in the writings of Jorge Luis Borges.¹⁰ Some of the surfaces of the spheres have been delicate- ly etched with hieroglyphs made up of abstract symbols whose meaning only the artist knows and which, given their context, recall Sumerian cuneiform. Other spheres are accompanied by various unusual items such as a stand of trees or some slightly oval, ostrich-egg shapes, as if these allusions to the plant and ani- mal kingdoms were a restatement of that sacred geometry which is a metaphor for the creation of the universe, of life, of the here and the hereafter. Stairs that lead nowhere, or better, that lead metaphorically to eternity, complement the melancholic philo- sophical air that emanates from these sculptures. Cubed and triangular and quadrangular pyramids, some of which are open and offer the viewer a look at their insides, are key elements in these works. And if one bears in mind that al- most all Amaral’s spheres turn like some metallic ostrich egg, . Pyramid with Cube, €‚ . †׀ ׀ƒ cm, bronze. . Rocking Cube, €‚ .  ׇׇ cm, bronze.