The Conceit of Counting : New Work by Owen Schuh

Artist’s Statement

It is said that mathematics is the language of nature. But nature does not do algebra or trigonometry; it doesn’t add subtract or multiply; it doesn’t even count.  Soap bubbles do not calculate the angle at which to join one another, nor do sunflowers count the number of seeds spiraling in one direction in relation to the other. And yet we are able to use mathematics to describe these systems with an almost eerie accuracy.  What’s more, mathematics allows us to see relationships in nature that were hitherto invisible.  My current body of work represents my own investigation into the relationship between the mind, mathematics and nature. The paint and forms are the surprisingly organic and chaotic results of simple rule-sets. They mimic the precisely mathematical, yet wildly irregular and beautiful systems of nature.