Relativity Stairs

An open corner of a room, after M.C. Escher’s lithograph Relativity. Bone-white stairs climb from the floor, hang from the ceiling and grow sideways out of both walls, and every flight is the right way up for its own idea of down.

6.1 × 6.1 × 6.1 in, 9.9 oz, made from PLA in charcoal, bone white and gold.

Relativity Stairs seen from above the open corner: a charcoal floor and two charcoal walls with arched openings, bone-white stairs rising from the floor to a landing on a column, one flight hanging from a ceiling strip and two more jutting sideways out of the walls, all with gold railings.

Four ways down

A room that can’t agree on down.

A floor, two walls and a strip of ceiling, all charcoal. 5 flights of stairs run through it, and no two agree on which way is down. Keep scrolling and the room turns to each of them.

Down is the floor.

10 steps climb to a landing held up on a column, where an urn stands by the rail. 9 more reach a balcony on corbels against the back wall.

Down is the left wall.

Turn the room and the flight that juts sideways out of the wall climbs like any other: 10 steps up to a landing that, seen from the floor, stands on edge.

Down is the ceiling.

Turn it over and the ceiling strip is the ground. 11 steps rise from it to the underside of the balcony, so the balcony is a floor on both of its faces.

Down is the back wall.

10 steps climb out of the back wall to a landing that, seen from the floor, is a slab standing on end.

50 steps, 4 ways down.

The floor and both walls are flat on the outside, so it can sit on any of the three. Whichever face it sits on decides which flight is the right way up.

Up close

The left wall from inside the room: two arched openings between flat pilasters, a flight of stairs jutting sideways out of the wall above them, and the floor stairs and urn below.
Two arched bays pass right through the left wall, each framed by flat pilasters. Above them a flight juts straight out of the wall, its railing standing sideways.
The mid landing on its column with base and capital, a gold urn on a pedestal at its corner, a flight climbing from it toward the back wall and a framed picture on the wall behind.
The mid landing stands on one column with a base and a capital. The urn sits on a pedestal at the corner, and on the back wall a small framed picture holds a staircase of its own.
The room turned so that its left wall is at the bottom: the sideways flight now stands level with its railings upright, while the floor's stairs and column run sideways across the picture.
Set on its left wall, the room changes allegiance. The flight that grew sideways is now level and upright, and the column lies on its side.

The piece

Size
6.1 × 6.1 × 6.1 in
Weight
9.9 oz
Material
PLA, in three colours
Room
Matte Charcoal floor, walls and ceiling strip
Stairs
Matte Bone White flights, landings and column
Details
Iridium Gold Metallic railings, pipes, picture frame and urn
Flights
5 flights, 50 steps, 4 ways down
Sits on
Its floor, or either of its walls