It seems impossible to stop science and art from elbowing into each other’s personal space. Despite a natural polarization, the two areas of study are consistently forced together by curious and daring artististic minds—such as Oliver Jeffers. The Irish artist, who is behind the paintings Measuring Land and Sea, meets the objective world of science with the subjective world of art in his juxtapositional and slightly unsettling landscapes.
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In Measuring Land and Sea, lapping waves, stretches of sea, and blue sky are interrupted by scattered markers representing the sea level by fathoms, a now antiquated mode of measurement. Jeffers aims to find a happy yet confusing median where the “two very human characteristics: feeling and reasoning” can coexist.
The placement of random numeric values in the paintings provoke an unexplainable unease, and reminds the viewer of the cold, spiky world of reality. Measuring doesn’t harp on the irrelevant, and in some ways the nicety of the landscapes are a glimmer of hope behind the metrics' exacting coldness.Describing the measurements as “factual” and “extraneous," the press release states,“Jeffers mirrors the muddying effect of the human inclination to overcomplicate. Conversely, his seascapes comment on the limits of human capacity for comprehension.”
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