Flutter. Swing. Pulse. Rhythm. Time.
All around us, physical forces are at work. Finnbogi Pétursson has made it his life’s work to create situations where the viewer notices, senses, these forces. Often through waves, which sometimes can be heard, in other works seen. In Parabola, he makes visible the rhythm of Earth. The artist uses sound, but instead of resounding it creates movement. The sound ripples the water like an invisible drop falling, creating waves that travel across the surface of the water. In a way that is particular to this planet.
“The waves cannot be significantly altered, in light of gravity and the effects of other planets here on Earth,” says Finnbogi.
The ripples travel to a beat. Sine waves pulsate across a specific part of the water which is framed in oblong pools. The light projects the motion of the water upwards, we see it in a material that we rarely think about, the air that surrounds us. When the light hits the wave at its crest, it appears as a bright ray of light, but at its trough, a shadow is created. When the waves ricochet off the borders set by the artist, they transform into their negative form. The negative and positive waves intermingle, creating new patterns. The waves’ frequency is visual, we see them meet, they do not break but create new patterns, even stillness.
This isn’t just any pulse; this is the preferred oscillation of the material. The artist uses water, air, light and sound as shapeable matter. He uses man’s knowledge of Earth’s physical laws to control difficult material. We know this beat; it lives within us. When we affect the world, we often do so according to this rhythm. Whether we push child on a swing, adjust airscrews, stir bathwater or swing just about anything.
“We try to live on the right wavelength, in our own rhythm. I watched my granddaughter learn how to swing, how she knew exactly when to put down her foot to maintain the motion. This comes so naturally to us. Maintaining movement is what we seek, to spend as little energy as possible in maintaining the flow.”
In geometry, parabola is one of the three conic sections. The cone in question is a light cone, a triangle and the origin of equilateral waves, such as those we see in the patterns in the air. In his curiosity about the basic principles of physics, the artist uses man’s knowledge of Earth’s natural phenomena to present an experience of them. By dissecting the form, he creates a tomogram of trajectories that we know – maybe without realising it. Here, though, we are only meant to perceive. Take the time, which is of vital importance, in everything.
“I am only chasing basic forms from different directions.”
Finnbogi’s works are beautiful. They almost appear simple. Therein lies the magic, in a calculated isolation of the principles and the shaping of unreliable materials. The presentation is straightforward, stripped of everything that doesn’t serve the idea, a super-controlled environment created, a kind of playground for physical phenomena. The systems that surround us are boiled down into one exhibition hall. In the exhibition, we are surrounded by natural phenomena, but simultaneously we feel distant from nature, as if parts of it have been extracted and put on a pedestal, for us to worship in peace.
