Phi
2,706 individual porcelain components make up this piece. Each component has four sides, three white and one silver. They are all orientated in the same direction except for a select few. From one viewpoint a silver spiral on a white background can be seen, from the other a white spiral on silver. The spiral depicted is the Fibonacci spiral.
This piece centres on the dimensions, proportions, curves and forms which have compelled and inspired man universally for millennia, exploring how the golden ratio, geometry and mathematics play a role in the human perception of beauty in an attempt to understand its’ ubiquity and appeal.
Carr’s work investigates this through the repetition of forms, leading to emerging patterns of a larger scale alongside natural, self-referential, iterative systems that display self-similarity and fractal geometry. Such systems possess time-scales ranging from the growth of seedlings to the regeneration of new continents, and they are observed both on the microscopic and macroscopic scale.
The cosmic significance of geometric forms seems unequivocal and may be regarded as a universal law; this ‘blueprint’ connects us all universally. The thing which sets us apart from this magical phenomenon is our awareness of it; our human fallibility shows not only our inability to comprehend these ‘divine’ laws but also our humility as mere cogs in the wheel. As with quantum theory, superposition collapses the moment observation takes place, our grasp of the universal order leaves us the moment we try to hold onto the essence of it.
Phi - Porcelain, enamel. Dimensions variable
2010