2012 Senior Art Thesis
Antonia Villa
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ARTIST STATEMENT
Unobserved by most people, math unknowingly constructs and connects the world around us. To me, the most intriguing concepts in math have always been related to geometry and the world of lines. My work begins with carefully calculated mathematical processes that evolve into something chaotic and unpredictable. The images portray a physical representation of abstract mathematical concepts, including chaos theory and the fractal sets. Through my work, I hope to heighten my audiences’ awareness of the connectivity of lines that surround them and the mathematics that underlie all aspects of our physical environment.
In my prints, I present enlarged images of fractals formed during decalcomania, or a variation on the process of transferring designs from one surface onto another. The most important aspect of this process is the interaction of the two surfaces in question. As the surfaces separate, paint adheres to both the top and bottom, forming ridges and veins between the surfaces. As more ridges coalesce, a dendritic fractal forms.
The combination of the stable and the unstable aspects of decalcomania parallel aspects of the mathematical theorems from which my work is inspired. Fractals are the product of infinitely repeating stable geometric patterns, which are generated by iterative processes producing figures, which retains the same statistical character as a whole. In reality, however, chaos theory questions the notion of stability; slight alterations in the initial conditions of my work, such as the type, viscosity, or quantity of paint, yield ascetically different results. In my work, I hope to highlight the moments of beauty that exist beneath the chaos.
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