741_solutions_51x46

Rachel T Harris’s 741_solutions_51x46 is a masterfully wrought, gestural, and intuitive painting. Still, I will try to restrain myself from its aesthetic qualities (not an easy task) in favor of its conceptual fodder. As an art nerd, it will come as no surprise that I’m not so good with numbers. In fact, I am terrible at any task that even slightly involves numbers, and the more numbers, the more confusion. However, I love the idea of numbers. There are no vague numbers. Specificity is intrinsically part of any numerical combination. They are the least abstract thing in the world because they are impossible to subvert into ambiguity (this is probably not true at a certain level of mathematics, but I admit I don't know anything about these damn things). However, one could very plausibly argue the opposite. They are hieroglyphs that refer to combinations and not material things. All this is to say, I find 741_solutions_51x46 to be the perfect artistic description of numbers because it is undeniably abstract but based on science. A truly intriguing work.