shardcore

Thursday 1st of May saw an array of paintings arrive at my house, many of which were still wet - however we managed to install them all in the church and prepare ourselves for the Private View. In total MASS has 58 canvases by 27 artists - a complete congregation. We bought some wine and invited some friends to celebrate the launch of this unique exhibition, and the highlights can be seen in the video below. We sang songs, accompanied by the church organ, and listened to the words of local poet Michael James Parker.

Filed by shardcore at 6:24 pm under MASS, exhibitions, video
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Phew, MASS is installed. We had a fantastic Private View on Thursday, with well over 100 people in attendance - video of the event will be online shortly. In the meantime here’s a re-cut version of the MASS promo, featuring a lot more artwork.

Filed by shardcore at 2:48 pm under MASS, exhibitions, video
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A portrait of Peter Higgs of ‘Higgs Boson’ fame. The Higgs boson is a (currently) hypothetical elementary particle, which, should it exist, explains how the universe gets its mass. It has been referred to as ‘The God Particle’ since it nicely ties up a lot of loose ends in quantum physics. No one has yet recorded the presence of a Higgs boson, though it is hoped the new Large Hadron Collider at CERN will be powerful enough to reveal one.

acrylic on canvas 762mm x 1062mm

The Higgs boson is a quantum component of a Higgs field - it suggests that even in a complete vacuum there’s still something ‘going on in the background’ and this stuff acts like a viscous liquid, dragging on all the other particles which gives them mass. My friend Sacha suggested a nice simile: “i remember someone explaining the hypothetical boson as a pretty girl trying to walk through a party - everyone keeps attaching themselves to her slowing her progress.”.

Peter Higgs first postulated the idea in 1964, and at once recognised it as ‘the idea of a lifetime’. However having the idea and proving it’s true via experiment is always tricky in the world of Physics. As with all things sub-atomic you never really catch a boson, you merely infer its presence by smashing some atoms together very hard and watching the interaction of the resulting particles. Maybe 2008 is the year we finally get to ’see’ one.

Quantum Physics deals with particles too small to comprehend, doing things which make no sense - at least in terms of our common sense experience of the world. Which, to me, is what makes explanations of the quantum realm feel like magic - without something that I can reference back to my own experience and expectations, it all becomes mysterious. There is a sense of wonder and incomprehension which comes from seeing a great piece of sleight of hand, and the I get same sort of sensation when trying to rationalize particle physics with my intuitive understanding of the universe.

With these thoughts in mind I’ve painted Professor Higgs performing a conjuring trick, producing the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen from thin air. It’s not so much a painting of a boson, as a painting of the idea of a boson - a smorgasbord of scintillations.

You can of course see the painting in person when it is presented as part of MASS next week.

Below is a timelapse recording of the painting.

This is only the second time I’ve painted a living subject without having met them, the other of course being John Lydon. I trust that should Professor Higgs stumble across this page he’ll let me know what he thinks…

Filed by shardcore at 11:02 pm under MASS, video, painting
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Filed by shardcore at 9:32 am under MASS, video
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Part two of the triptych for MASS. Still deciding who will sit between this guy and The General.

acrylic on canvas 762mm x 1062mm

Below is a timelapse recording of the painting process. The music is ‘pigfucker’ by thetinyorganismsthatliveinsidevirgiliulamsbody.

Filed by shardcore at 1:08 pm under MASS, video, painting
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