Sally
Porter
Artist's Statement
My work explores
the question, "What is reality?" The work converges on philosophy,
the science of mathematics, and human perception. According to Plato's theory
of forms, everything in this reality, the imperfect state of becoming, is based
on a higher level of reality, the reality of pure, perfect ideas or forms.
Mathematicians seek to reveal this underlying order and unity by condensing the
patterns found in nature into formulae. Human perception enables us to participate
in the process of becoming. Through my art, I hope to provide the catalyst,
which stimulates the viewer into pursuing his or her own search for answers to
this question.
Mathematical
symbols, equations, and numbers are part of the visual grammar used in my work.
The Greek letter Omega is used in higher-level mathematics to point to the
ultimate infinity. The Greek letter Phi is used as a symbol for the Golden
Ratio, the ratio upon which the Fibonacci sequence converges. The natural
logarithmic base, "e", also appears as an element, along with
formulae appropriated from calculus.
One of the rooms
on this site is named after Euler, a mathematician living in the eighteenth
century. He discovered what is now known as Euler's formula, which is
significant in that it unites some of the fundamental mathematical identities,
(1, 0, e, the imaginary number "i", and pi) into one equation. This
formula appears in the painting Everything and Nothing, an image of pure
geometric elements. The piece, Aleph-Nought Rock-Sand, incorporates the
symbol aleph-nought. This symbol is used in transfinite arithmetic, a branch of
mathematics concerned with infinities. Mathematics, the science of patterns, is
the abstract vehicle, which exposes the underlying order and unity of all that
is.
The rooms
Kingdom Animalia (Shells) and Kingdom Animalia focus on some of the more
obvious patterns found in nature. Plato's Reptilian Form contains the
image of a turtle, a lizard, and crocodilian pattern, along with the function
f(x) = 2, referencing an underlying order. The paintings 109 Degrees and
Seventy Degrees reference angle measurements found in the hexagonal
honeycomb of bees. The paintings whose titles contain the word
"Cipher" refer to the encryption of our physical reality, inferring a
code, which remains hidden. Birdness with Phyllotaxis features the image
of fossilized archaeopteryx, the first bird, along with a diagram of
phyllotaxis, the numerical arrangement of petals or leaves around a stem.
The paintings in
the room Glass Reality, are based on my perception of pieces of colorless,
clear, cut crystal glass. One of the pieces of glass, a crystal candy
dish/bowl, is the subject of six of the thirteen paintings in this room. Color
is a topic of philosophical interest. One theory states that color does not
exist independently of the viewer's mind. According to the Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle, our perception of an object determines the final reality
of that object.
The writings of
mathematician John Barrow, physicist Fritjof Capra, and the philosophy of Plato
have heavily influenced my work. Artists that have informed my work include
Paul Klee, Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Van Gogh, David Hockney, Chuck Close, and
David Salle.