Prime Marks – Open Up Sheffield 2010
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Prime Marks 2010 |
A couple of years ago Paul produced a painting called Eratosthenes. Named after the ancient Greek mathmetician who worked with prime number patterns, it is structured as a 6x9 grid of coloured rectangles based on the prime number series.
“I know it might sound a bit nerdy, but prime numbers are intriguing, and the patterns they make can be exciting and unexpected. I was gripped and decided to develop my original painting into a series of artworks which showed the inherent patterning potential within this number series,” says Paul.
In Prime Marks Paul has created 72 individual small square canvases showing numbers from 1 to 72. Each number is depicted using symbols representing a prime or prime factors. For example, the primes two and three are a yellow chevron and a red triangle respectively. The non-prime 6 is represented by its prime factors 2 and 3 (2x3=6) shown as a yellow chevron and a red triangle.
These 72 canvases are arranged in one large block to show how the prime and factored numbers repeat and make patterns. The twist, though, is that Paul can rearrange the block of canvases in several ways, each time exposing different patterns and relationships.