Brian Harper

  • Bio
  • cv
  • Statement
  • Artwork
    • Bunker Series
    • Scaffolding Series – JCPenny Home™ Collection
    • Scaffolding Series – Asteroids
    • Oscillations
    • Trans/pher
    • Standardized Test for Congress
    • Diplomatic Cables
    • New Myth Series
    • Strings in the Aether
    • The Open Crowd Project
    • Photographs
  • Teaching
    • Teaching Philosophy
    • Student Work
    • Kilns / Projects
      • IUS Anagama
      • IUS Cross-draft Soda Kiln
      • Gulf Coast Kiln Walk
      • St. Pete Kiln
      • Flagstaff Kiln
      • Taos Kiln
      • Bendel’s Mural
  • Curatorial
    • Boundless
    • The Ephemeral, The Evolving
    • Transition Points
    • Strange Attractors
    • The Air & The ground
    • Filtered Permeability
    • Artaxis Exhibition – Philadelphia
    • Bread and Roses (student exhibition)
    • CONNECT (student exhibition)
    • ZHEYNA (student exhibition)
    • Clean Fossils (student exhibition)
    • Unrelated and Unrestricted (student exhibition)
  • Life

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Oscillations

 

The increasing volume and unprecedented rate of new discoveries in every aspect of the world around us is creating completely new horizons for human comprehension. Whether these new perceptual shifts are scientific, cultural, political, or personal, this has created a need to modify our personal and public belief systems as we search for new meaning within new contexts. Belief in any new information forms new relationships and connections within our minds and therefore creates a paradigm shift, often so minor as to go unnoticed. As we absorb these changes, the implications they pose moves through us personally, as well as collectively, in an increasingly chaotic pattern. In the study of dynamical systems that change through time, chaos theory states that seemingly small changes in a sequence of events can have drastic consequences as that chain of events progresses. For example, the ‘Butterfly Effect’ shows that even infinitesimally small variations in the initial condition of a dynamic system can have large consequences as the system evolves. Therefore, a flap of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world could initiate a chain of events that causes a tornado in a different part of the world.

With this work, I am interested in extrapolating from what chaos theory has shown about the ‘Butterfly Effect’ and using it to examine how our perceptions of our surroundings are continually being modified as time evolves. Seemingly small events in our experiences of being alive can manifest themselves in unknown and unpredictable ways. In this work, each turn, each angle, and each junction effect all subsequent directions in these oscillating shapes. Each part plays a role in the form of the whole, but more importantly, each part defines the direction of the whole. Likewise, all single moments, even the infinitesimally small moments in our experience of being alive build to continually modify our individual perception of our known and unknown surroundings.

Oscillation (oblique, compact, folding, 55)
Oscillation (oblique, compact, folding, 55)
Oscillation (oblique, compact, folding, 55) - detail

Oscillation (oblique, compact, folding, 55)
ceramic, epoxy, pigment
20″ x 21″ x 23″

Oscillations (super-compact, oblique, 25)
Oscillations (super-compact, oblique, 25)
Oscillations (super-compact, oblique, 25)

Oscillation (super-compact, oblique, 25)
ceramic, epoxy, pigment
10″ x 10″ x 10″

Installed at Land of Tomorrow (LOT) Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky
04-oscillations-web
Oscillations (inverted, looping, 236)
01-oscillations-web

Brian Harper: Oscillations (Installation View), Land of Tomorrow (LOT) Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky

Oscillation (inverted, closed, 236)
ceramic, epoxy, pigment
5 1/2′ x 5 1/2′ x 18″

09-oscillations-web
10-oscillations-web
11-oscillations-web

Oscillation (linear, folded, 84)
ceramic, epoxy, pigment
105″ x 7″ x 5″

06-oscillations-web
07-oscillations-web
08-oscillations-web

Oscillation (compact, strange, 150)
ceramic, epoxy, pigment
105″ x 6″ x 6″

fixed-again-2-web
fixed-again-1-web

Oscillations (folding, 23)
17in x 19in x 47in
ceramic, epoxy, pigment

Oscillation (compact, large diameter, 24)
Oscillation (compact, large diameter, 24)

Oscillations (compact, 24)
34″ x 16″ x 17″
ceramic, epoxy, pigment

My mailing list

Find me.

email me at brianharperstudio@gmail.com or via my contact page
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Copyright @ Brian Harper 2001-2019

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.