Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya
In my series of works entitled “Weird Wonders of the World”, popular visual wonders such as Möbius strip, Penrose triangle, infinite staircase and others are presented in a realistic context, as if they appeared in nature. By dressing them up as the ancient wonders of the world I ask the questions: what is a “wonder of the world” today and how do we view the ancient wonders now? While ancient wonders were architectural, made by people to demonstrate their majesty on this Earth, these wonders exhibit mind’s delight at discovering the puzzles of its own perception. I use 2D and 3D computer graphics as well as photographs made by myself or my friends in different parts of the world, on the ground, on mountains and underwater, to show the beauty of these objects, thus uniting the intellectual wonder of perceiving a mathematical concept with the aesthetical pleasure of viewing a beautiful image.
Hanging gardens of Babylon were built in the desert as a wonder of land amelioration and engineering. In our era humanity continues to perform such wonders, e.g. in desert Australia. While the flowers on my picture, which have grown on the Möbius strip over the Australian plain, were placed there by computer graphics, it is the hard work of those who make the Red Continent green that invokes our admiration. Photographs of Australian views and the Floriada festival in Canberra were used in this image.