Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space-Map Projections: The Doughnut (tangent torus)
Science helps us make sense of the world, but the world does not always fit into the framework that science provides. Errors, discrepancies, and even absurdities can result when a system meets an object. In this work, Denes maps the earth onto a mathematical form: a doughnut.
In reimagining the globe’s spatial coordinates, she also deforms them, and as the planet bends to a new illogical logic, it loses its familiar legibility, devolving into visual chaos. "Map Projections," Denes wrote in 1976, is "based on the conflicting and interdependent elements of . . . irrationality and reason."
In reimagining the globe’s spatial coordinates, she also deforms them, and as the planet bends to a new illogical logic, it loses its familiar legibility, devolving into visual chaos. "Map Projections," Denes wrote in 1976, is "based on the conflicting and interdependent elements of . . . irrationality and reason."
Artwork Details
- Title: Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space-Map Projections: The Doughnut (tangent torus)
- Artist: Agnes Denes (American, born Budapest, 1931)
- Date: 1980
- Medium: Pen and black ink, watercolor and metallic paint on mylar and paper
- Dimensions: 17 x 14 in. (43.2 x 35.6 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Van Day Truex Fund, 2001
- Object Number: 2001.434.6
- Rights and Reproduction: © Agnes Denes
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Multiple artists/makers
1986
Agnes Denes
1980
Agnes Denes
1974
Agnes Denes
1970
Agnes Denes
1978
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