Making art with Rubik's cubes

A group of six attempts to break records with their portrait of Abdul Kalam with 2,000-plus cubes

On Republic Day, Forum Mall, Whitfield hosted a unique world record attempt. A group of six Rubik’s cube artists attempted to create Asia’s largest 3-D cube portrait. Team Speed Cubing Bangalore, Hariology, Prithvi Mosaics and Deccan Cubing created a portrait of APJ Abdul Kalam out of 2,611 cubes.

Hariprasad CM, the man behind Hariology spoke to Metrolife about how this attempt came about.

“I started cubing in 2010 but for the longest time I was only into speedcubing, competitions and teaching people how to cube,” he says.

It was only last year when he combined his love for painting with cubing. “I made a portrait of the spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi using 600 cubes and there was no looking back,” he says.

His next big project was a 3-D portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 last year. The portrait constructed on three orthogonal planes was the first of its kind in India according to Hariprasad.

Each portrait takes around four to six hours to design and around five hours to make. “The most time consuming aspect is taking it apart and solving the cubes. It can easily take around 10 hours for 600 cubes,” he says.

But time and talent is not the only factor. “Cube portraits are expensive. A good quality cube cost Rs 200, so 600 cubes is an investment of over a lakh,” he explains.

This also means that all his portraits are temporary. “It definitely upsets me that I have to take my hard work apart each time but I try and compensate by documenting both the process and the final product extensively,” he says.

The Republic Day event was the first collaborative portrait he had taken part in. “Cost was a driving factor. No one had enough cubes of their own to make such a large portrait,” he says.

The four groups have been planning this event since the end of November 2020. “Since no one else had experience designing 3-D portraits, that was my responsibility. It took a week to do and the design was divided into 12 portions and two portions were assigned to one person,” he explains.

The blocks were constructed separately and assembled together. “We arrived at Forum at 8.30 am and came up with our game plan. We began making the portrait at 1 pm and we finished at 9.30 pm,” he says.

He adds that there was no practice session, just extensive planning. He hopes to do more portraits like this but it is currently on hold as he completes his PhD.

Covering the costs

Hariprasad is currently a research associate and PhD scholar. He earns through teaching people how to cube and by creating custom portraits. “Depending on the size, time and number of cubes required a portrait can cost anything from Rs 20,000 to a Lakh,” he says. He adds that the novelty of cubing portraits have helped him be a part of film promotions and such which have not just supplemented his income but also given the art exposure.