Ω

‘Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.’

Bertrand Russell

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'Ω' contemplates the topology of space. Topology is a branch of mathematics that deals with properties describing how a space is composed and how it is preserved when deformed. This subject, which has a mathematical, quantum physical and philosophical dimension, began with Euclid and addresses the question of whether the universe is finite or infinite.

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El Lizzitsky writes in his 1915 essay ‘Art and Pangeometry’ that the representation of perspective is scientifically determined: it has evolved from a one-dimensional temporal and a three-dimensional spatial representation to a multi-dimensional mathematical and a hyper-dimensional scientific representation. Suprematism has led perspective to infinity, where foreground and background merge.

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Around the time Malevich was painting his ‘Black Square’ in an attempt to introduce a new space-time dimension into art and reduce it to its essence, various scientists were proposing theories in an attempt to explain the origins of the universe. Jean-Pierre Luminet proposes years later his theory of the ‘univers chiffoné’ as a space that is both finite and infinite, or in other words, where the beginning and the end are identical. As light always travels in a straight line, it always returns to its starting point within this space and causes reflections of light; so-called cosmic folds and reflections.

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'Ω' contemplates these cosmic folds and reflections through a series of simple tessellations of the two-dimensional grid and its transpositions into complex three-dimensional patterns. This language of abstract geometric forms is inspired by the surface of the grid and the process of folding and knotting. Aesthetics and technique are thus inextricably linked, and 'Ω' is part of an investigation into the logical control of a design process in order to achieve an objective aesthetic result.

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The title refers to the constant 'omega' which represents the density of energy. The law of relativity states that if the energy density is less than 1, the expansion of the universe corresponds to a spherical pattern. If the energy density is zero, it corresponds to a Euclidean model and if it is more than 1, it corresponds to a hyperbolic model. The 'omega' constant therefore represents the limit of the expansion of the universe - and thus the question of whether the universe is finite or not.