The wheel of fortune
Drawing. Printed grid on paper and pigmented color India ink. 22X30 Inch (without frame). 2022.
Spin the wheel of fortune!
The drawings are made by “chance” according to the given dictate of each of the roulette’s used in the process.
The final result reveals how the machine is biased towards some of the numbers. The nature of each roulette. While doing the drawings, a key part of the process is counting the resulting numbers. Color is used to visualize this numbers created through repetition. We can sit back and analyze the colors and look at the numbers to understand the results.
The result of this process is in some way similar to mandalas. They require a meditating process to be filled with color; they also reveal the slow but unstoppable passing of time. They are the product of a set of instructions, having a ritualistic aspect in their nature. In this case they address mathematical ideas, and pretend to reveal the tension between chance and probability. Also to question raise questions like:
How perfect each roulette is, in terms of being unpredictable, capable of giving very random results?
How random? Next question: Can it be perfectly random?
Would we recognize “perfect randomness?
Is there perfect randomness?
If it’s possible, can humans create a perfectly random generator device?
More than ink and paper, the drawings are made with patience, dedication and a great deal of concentration. Control is yielded to the spinning machine. Power is transferred from the hand of the artist to the roulette and then the roulette controls the hand to create the drawing…
While doing these drawings many thoughts came to my mind. They invited me to think about the conditions that lead things to develop into particular and concrete situations or objects. About the importance of accumulation of small actions can produce results of great impact and sometimes importance. The color contrasts, dissonance, harmonies and relations also make me think about how we see the complete apparent chaos and immensity of our universe and struggle to make sense out of all that overwhelming information.
In the pictures you can see the results of following the same instructions, but changing the roulette. We can compare how different results can be. A color was assigned to each number of the roulette's (equally done for each roulette).