|
C110 review
Derry: Jenifer Youell at Context Galleries
 |
| Jenifer Youell: The Geometry
of Thinking, 2004, installation shot; courtesy Context
Galleries |
In her show The Geometry of
Thinking Jenifer Youell, in her own words, "...attempts
to visualise complex scientific and philosophical ideas of dualities
within systems, such as order and complexity, the tangible and
intangible, boundaries and limits" using humble materials. Geometry
of Thinking refers to Buckminster Fuller's synergistics: the
study of processes and parts within systems. Youell also draws
on George Bataille's theory of general economy.
Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome and one of the twentieth century's great innovators, was also driven by a social conscience: his vision was of light, strong, cost-effective, affordable housing for everyone. His domes used gravity instead of fighting it, utilising tension instead of compression to create structures encompassing the largest volume of space with least surface. Perhaps the best-known of these constructions was built by communications multinational AT&T in the very belly of the beast: Disney's Epcot Centre in Florida boasts a geodesic sphere as their ersatz-science version of the Magic Castle.
Bataille's treatise on general economy
posits that all organic behaviour is based on similar principles.
All things try to grow and where growth is limited, an excess
of energy is produced which leads to "non-productive expenditure."
 |
| Jenifer Youell: The
Geometry of Thinking, 2004, installation shot; courtesy
Context Galleries |
Youell's Brancusian Virtual column
consists of 6,480 toothpicks glued together in units of icosahedrons
to form an ephemeral floor-to-ceiling tower: the representation
of a pure mathematical concept in a material designed for dealing
with the inefficiency of bodily function.
Particle is a satisfyingly discrete icosahedron rendered from a single toothpick and Klein's cube is an attempt to represent the hypercube (a cube unfolded along the fourth dimension) in a three-dimensional construction painted in pleasing blocks of colour. In the corner, on the floor, is Untitled (breathing sculpture), a hand-stitched construction of translucent plastic which gently inflates and deflates, its leg-like protrusions splayed.
Like many before her, Youell seeks the answers to social and philosophical conundrums in a mathematical formula - from the age-old fascination with the mystical powers of the dodecahedron to Belfast-based artist David Turner, who hopes that by combining a mathematical approximation and a set of statistical probabilities (using T9 predictive text, typing in the sequence of pi) he might reveal the word of God.
Trying to represent abstract mathematical concepts with tangible models is inherently frustrating, but Youell's work manages to rise above the science-room teaching aid and to provoke genuinely stimulating questions.
Sarah Greavu is a Derry-based artist and a member of the Void Art Centre curating committee.
Do
you have an opinion on this article? If so, please click here for our comments form.
| No reader feedback so far - awaiting your input! |
|
