Infinity

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Series of oil and acrylic paintings of mathematical representations of infinity.

From a human point of view, a lifetime of roughly 80 years, the difference between a hundred thousand and a hundred million years is immaterial. These periods of time stretch the powers of imagination to the breaking point. The concept is so large, with no obvious way to connect personally, it becomes meaningless. Even though it is technically quantifiable, time is so incredibly long it becomes effectively theoretical and consideration of infinity naturally follows.

Mathematicians Giuseppe Peano, David Hilbert and Donald Knuth each worked with the theories of infinity through their research on space-filling curves. Aspects of their work described how it could be possible for a line to fill all points on a plane. In other words, they proved that something finite could theoretically become infinite. The visual depiction of these space-filling curves, with their complex repeating patterns, makes it feel possible to glimpse infinity in some capacity though we are finite ourselves.

This series of paintings depicts various types of fractal and space-filling curves. Some are deconstructed. Others are presented in full.