Karen Amanda Harris

Statement

Mathematics is sublime: a world where mysteries conceal deeper mysteries within. My work is non-digital, created by markers, ink liners and gel pens on watercolour paper. I tend to start with an experiment in mind (e.g. variations on a zigzag) and see what emerges. At every stage the geometry presents new options, every option yielding further possibilities. "Shall I end this line at this point, or extend it to that point? What if I veer off at 45 degrees? Shall I repeat the pattern here, or here? How many repetitions? What if I trace and rotate it, or superimpose another pattern over it?" The mix of freedom and discipline, of line and colour, offers unexpected hints of strange and vivid worlds, infinite spaces and multi-dimensionality.

Artworks

This rose —softness emerging from precision geometry– is based on iterated halves. The starting point was six interlocking circles. Every central intersection created a point from which I divided the radius in half on both sides. The resultant five points across each diameter gave a rich network of potential nodes, allowing a range of polygonal, stellated and curvilinear forms to emerge— while maintaining reflective and rotational symmetry. The central red hexagon is further subdivided into halves on each spoke. It is then halved and halved again as it leads us into the tightly-enclosed, secretive “heart” of the rose. As the petals open out nearer the edge, the colours gradually lighten from intense red through to pale gold.

A central dodecagon extends into a gold dodecagram, from which 12 grey and white “lightning spikes” radiate. The spikes look jagged– yet their sharp changes in direction and angle are determined by the continuation of invisible lines joining outer vertices on the dodecagram, and where such lines would meet. This is what gives the spikes their seemingly anti-clockwise “movement” around the centre. As the lines extend further outward, they form additional continuations and points of convergence: these cohere into circuits of varied triangles and quadrilaterals, ending in an outer set of jagged spikes (now swirling clockwise). Taken as a whole, the effect is of turbulent ferocity spiralling around a core of calm, smooth regularity.