Not Rocket Science

A daring and colorful exploration into several experimental forms of abstract painting and sculpture, creating parallels between art and physics. Work by Raphael Delgado.

Exibition Dates: September 2, 2014 - September 25, 2014

Artist Statement

As an artist, I will more than likely never discover a new planet or distant star, or make any scientific discoveries for that matter. There is also an excellent chance that I will never look into a microscope or telescope and fully comprehend what exactly I am looking at. I am O.K. with that. I strive to understand the governing principals of the universe as much as necessary to get through the day. Since childhood, I have been fascinated in space and physics, but it never related to me in any artistic way, so my interests faded… until recently, when I became very interested with the hypothetical substance known as “dark matter “. You know, that mysterious light resistant stuff that comprises a vast majority of space along with dark energy. Scientists know it’s there because it moves objects around it, but they have yet to figure out exactly what it is made out of. It is still something baffling and up for much debate. We are just waiting for a discovery so the known universe can change overnight. In science there is no such thing as, “Never will be classified,” only, “Yet to be classified”. Scientists will always strive to understand the unknown and take control of the natural world, manipulating it to their command. It is this idea that ignites my artistic mind and sensibilities and I finally get to join in the conversation with a parallel vision.

Artists too seek to understand and reveal to the world that which was never known to exist. Through experimentation and observation we aim to interpret the nature of reality in a way that describes and changes the way people view the world and their place in it. We transform perceptions by creating visual information to be analyzed against established foundations. We build on other discoveries to create our own. Science and Art are continually interwoven and even share many of the same terms such as light, energy, gravity, mass, force, relation, and distance. While we trade equation and data for imagination and metaphor, we share similar pursuits in our goal to understand that powerful, unseen “ dark matter” that pushes us to understand and create. Scientists and artists both seek the need for a better understanding of the ever-changing world we live in, both in attempts to define the natures of their respective realities.

I, personally, am an artist, but it is through this scientific lens that I examine my latest body of work. I want to snatch from the heavens the governing bodies of physics and use them as metaphors for my creations. Gravity, light, mass, space, and time have become my mediums as I manipulate them to do what I want. Futuristic architectural forms collide with gravity defiant paint that appears to be millions of years in the making. Unaware of itself being an artwork, these “quantum“ objects appear to be frozen in a state of rapid acceleration, while calmly absorbing and reradiating light. Ranging in size and medium, each piece deceptively juxtaposes the far distant past and the far distant future and we observe ourselves stuck somewhere between. “Not Rocket Science “ becomes a visual vehicle for discovery, meant to disrupt stability and conjure new possibilities.

—Raphael Delgado