Richard Harrington

Statement

Over the years my artwork has been concerned with visual perception in various manifestations. To my mind, one of the most important developments of the 20th century, and of the early 21st, has been in the domain of perceptual psychology. Mathematics in various forms have been instrumental to these developments. The things I make are really concerned with these topics. There have been people who have phrased this far more succinctly than I. A prime example comes from the words of the perceptual psychologist Bela Julesz in his very profound and influential book Foundations of Cyclopean Perception... "Math is to infinity as psychology is to consciousness."

Artworks

These two objects are a study of stellated polyhedra in focused light, the shadows they cast, and a grey “dominant void”―a dialogue between what is there…and what isn’t. Their three-dimensionality, the surrounding space, and the “captured spherical space” ‘inside of’ them are an integral part of their conception. The achromatic color of the aluminum that they’re made from enhances their amorphous skeletal nature, and its moiré patterned texture introduces subtle diffracted color when they’re seen close-up in focused incandescent light. Richard Harrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts 2015