The Fractal Map of Being, 2023

Created almost exclusively from paints reclaimed from municipal waste disposal sites, and thus diverting them from landfill or fume generating incineration, this piece intends to encourage us to recognise the inherent potential in all things, as well as our intrinsic relationship to the rest of the universe.

The image responds to the rippling outward impact of our minds on our bodies, which then extend to our immediate environments, and then to our extended environments. Similarly, it depicts how once the ripples reach the edge of a pond or puddle, the ripples return to the centre. Between 80% and 90% of the atoms that compose our bodies at this very moment will be completely replaced by new ones from our environments every year. In other words, not only do our surroundings have a similar, mutual influence on us through our bodies and senses, but more profoundly, our surroundings and other people as well, are actually composed of our past and future selves.  What we do to our environment we do to ourselves.

We shape our environments just as much as we are influenced by them. All our small actions are cumulative, and will amount to significant changes in the world if we focus them with intent. The structural lines are informed by the Fibonacci sequence, one of the fractally underlying formats that underpin the laws of nature and harmony. The colour choices pay clear homage to Jasper John’s target of 1961, although the differing number of rings, colour sequence, and hues are dictated by different agendas.