Carousel Presents Symmetry's Portal: More Insights from Margarida Sardinha Concerning Her Current Work

I've been following the work of Lisbon-born artist Margardia Sardinha since I first discovered and interviewed her in late 2010. Her current exhibition in London is called Symmetry 's Portal.  It is the fruit of of her many years being extensively focused on the concepts of symmetry and optical illusion. The exhibition expands geometrically a wide photographic survey of the Alhambra in Granada documented by the artist. You can read our 2015 dialogue about the Alhambra here. I have been continuously impressed with the direction her explorations have taken.

Her exhibition at the Carousel in London opened last week and will run through July 1. By means of photographic assemblage the artist deconstructs symmetry and has generated illusory semblances. Symmetry 's Portal is thus a body of work of optical illusions where the symmetric and random are diluted in three-dimensional works originated from two-dimensional planes.

EN: Until I saw the photos of your installation at Carousel I was unaware of the scale of your work. How were these pieces produced?
Margarida Sardinha: The series Symmetry’s Portal comprises 30 works (150x94x35 cm) and an animation film that were produced at my studio. The 30 works’ backgrounds are printed on vinyl and the polyhedral shapes attached to them are printed on photographic paper and then assembled by me. I outsourced the printing and the plexiglas boxes that enclose the works from a local manufacturer.

EN: Your first visit to the Alhambra was in 2011. How and when did you first take an interest in symmetry?
MS: Symmetry has been a long sought interest of mine since my work deals with geometry. But before I went to the Alhambra I read specialised books on the subject such as Marcus du Sautoy’s “Symmetry – A Journey into the Patterns of Nature”, Keith Critchlow’s “Islamic Patterns” and Roger Penrose’s “Shadows of the Mind”. I also saw a very interesting and extensive retrospective of the works of M.C. Escher at the Alhambra galleries and then further read “Godel, Escher and Bach” by Douglas Hofstadter.

EN: It seems like a labyrinthian quest as you following Ariadne's Thread through symmetry's designs. Have there been points at which you felt you had breakthroughs and came to new understandings? Can you describe these?
MS: I suppose the first great breakthrough was to be able to recognize the 17 two-dimensional regular tessellations that are possible on a flat plane. You see, in symmetry there are only 17 regular ways of dividing a two-dimensional pane into regular tessellations and these can be all found in the floors, walls and ceilings of the Alhambra. It is extremely rare to find all these types of symmetries all in the same place – only some Egyptian temples also display such knowledge. When I went to the Alhambra I was on the lookout for these different types of symmetries and as I photographed the place I was able to find and understand them.

EN: How does understanding symmetry give us a greater understanding of and appreciation for the universe we live in?
MS: Symmetry has an uncanny way of finding its way everywhere – from a flower way of growing to manmade constructions it seems to surround us and even be part of us. Hence, I take a Platonic stance on how we perceive the world, which appears to be subconsciously guided by innate forms linked to geometry and symmetry thus by understanding these subjects we can better understand ourselves and our subconscious backgrounds.

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For more: 17 cool quotes by Marcus du Sautoy.
To learn more about the artist and her work, visit margaridasardinha.com.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.

Symmetry: Understanding the Way Things Are

"Although bees have known for ages that hexagons are the most efficient shape for building a honey store, it is only very recently mathematicians have  fully explained the Honeycomb Conjecture: from the infinite choice of different structures that the bees could have built, it is hexagons that use the least wax to create the most cells." ~Marcus du Sautoy

As I read this I think again of how amazing our natural world is. There are ways of seeing in which everything falls into patterns that dazzle the mind.

Near the end of the book Rocket Men, this is one of the effects the astronauts experienced, a new awe at the structure and order of the universe, man's smallness and the masterful combination of complexity, immensity and simplicity of the universe and its design.

“Nature seems to take advantage of the simple mathematical representations of the symmetry laws. When one pauses to consider the elegance and the beautiful perfection of the mathematical reasoning involved and contrast it with the complex and far-reaching physical consequences, a deep sense of respect for the power of the symmetry laws never fails to develop.” ― Chen Ning Yang

This is no new insight. The laws of symmetry are vast, and everywhere present.

“Since the beginning of physics, symmetry considerations have provided us with an extremely powerful and useful tool in our effort to understand nature. Gradually they have become the backbone of our theoretical formulation of physical laws.” ― Tsung-Dao Lee

Or as Paul Valery observed, "The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect."

The trigger for this blog post was the Marcus Du Sautoy quote about bees. It reminded me of Buckminster Fuller's work with Geodesic Domes. I heard a presentation on Fuller when I was young and it made an impression on me.

The harmonics between external structure and order and the symmetrical resonance with the internal phenomenon of our minds is endlessly fascinating. This was especially so for Du Sautoy. "Mathematics has beauty and romance," he wrote. "It's not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It's an extraordinary place; it's worth spending time there... The reason why we do math is because it's like poetry. It's about patterns, and that really turned me on. It made me feel that math was in tune with the other things I liked doing."

The applications are endless. Fuller applied it to architecture and design; Da Vinci and Dali to art. Mozart to music. "I'm obviously attuned to pick up mathematics whenever I can see it. But in Mozart there is a lot of conscious use of mathematical symbolism and numbers..." Most masterfully, the same occurs in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

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"But actually a code is a language for translating one thing into another. And mathematics is the language of science. My big thesis is that although the world looks messy and chaotic, if you translate it into the world of numbers and shapes, patterns emerge and you start to understand why things are the way they are." ~Marcus Du Sautoy

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Symmetry is more than just the natural world. This desire for balance reaches into the realm of ethics and morality. Doesn't our desire for justice, and our sense that injustice must be rectified, stem from a sense that wrongs must be righted, or someone must pay when a wrong is done? Where does this sense of a need for moral symmetry come from? Do I dare say it seems innate in the fiber of our very souls?

That, friends, is a much longer discussion and equally profound in its implications.