Ingrid Koenig: Uncertainty Principles
Ingrid Koenig Explosion (Consequence) 2008
Art has the ability to personalize knowledge and question ways of knowing that have evolved from the written word. Sometimes art attempts to express things we can sense but cannot explain.
Ingrid Koenig is an artist who grapples with our instinctive desire to intimately know the world around us. In her recent drawings and paintings, Koenig obsessively decodes the diagrammatic visual language of scientific theories by merging factual explanations of physics with subjective experiences of domestic scenarios from everyday life.
In a manner similar to contemporary artist Julie Mehretu, Koenig oscillates between macro and micro representations of forces of nature, allowing the viewer to contemplate his or her own existence within the presence of larger phenomena. In the series of works grouped under the title “Navigating the Uncertainty Principle,” the artist makes visible the seemingly invisible forces of nature in everyday life, ultimately questioning the construction of knowledge by visually merging science and art.
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Ingrid Koenig Wednesday 2004 |
Koenig is interested in how abstract concepts, such as those in quantum mechanics, can be used to describe our daily lives. Her recent work explores the uncertainty principle from quantum physics, developed in 1926 by Werner Heisenberg, which states that it is impossible to determine exactly where a particle is and how fast it is moving at the same time.
In her artist statement, Koenig relates this description of particle behaviour to fragmented experiences of contemporary human existence, stating she is driven to “link daily life poetically and formally to principles of science as a way to navigate the abyss of devolving intelligence, fragmented experience and pressures in our current world.”
Upon entering the gallery, the viewer is made to feel a part of this artistic investigation, encountering several large, unframed black and white drawings clipped to the wall in one long, horizontal row. The drawings contain a sense of authenticity due to their laboured precision and documentary feel, combining the language of abstract concepts with the everyday. The images balance the precision of domestic objects—bowls, cups, saucers, refrigerators, vacuum hoses—with the kinetic elements that place them in reality. The meticulous detail and quality of traditional mark-making in this series reveals an obsessive drive that is inherent to the identity of the researcher and the artist. The viewer is compelled to consider the extent to which art might function as “research” in an effort to understand concepts that are difficult to define.
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Ingrid Koenig Monday 2007 |
Koenig’s paintings capture a slightly different kind of energy through discordant colour schemes and a playful use of space. As with the drawings, the vibrating nature of non-linear movement is conveyed through the repeated use of staccato lines and dots, at times duplicated and offset in order to exaggerate the optical effect. The series depicting each day of the week, consisting of cups and bowls floating in space, is reminiscent of Shirley Wiitasalo or Mina Totino’s abstract paintings; here, however, mathematical precision replaces pictorial obscurity. In Explosion (Consequence), scientific order competes with the dynamic movement of coloured shapes. The metaphysical occurrences within the abstract environment are presented as surreal and humorous, yet grounded, factual knowledge underlined by the tin can, a recognizable object from the “real” world.
Koenig’s work not only demonstrates an interest in science as seen through the lens of the everyday and in the everyday as seen through the lens of science. She is also developing a visual language that represents the complexity of our time.
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Ingrid Koenig Chain Reaction 2008 |
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