Craig Damrauer: New Math Equations Parse Relationships, Divorce
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We're intrigued by Craig Damrauer's New Math project. Since 2002, the New York-based artist has been contributing to his series, which he describes as "an attempt to quantify the world using words and basic math." Today, the series consists of over 250 pieces that parse seemingly random aspects of the world, from the monarchy to modern art, placebos to unicycles, greed to the Gulf oil spill, and much more.
While some equations are tongue-in-cheek and others have a more serious tone, all strip down the objects, ideas, and people that surround us to their basic elements in a way that's strangely satisfying to behold, and it has found fans in its various incarnations, from book to prints, to T-shirts, to a limited-edition set of cards edited by Ed Ruscha.
Many of Damrauer's pieces--and all 23 of the images here--deal with human relationships, even though he acknowledges the difficulty of the subject matter: "Whenever we're talking about interactions involving humans, divorce especially, things get rather complex. Far more complex than my math will take me. And so what I end up doing is adding more and more equations, hoping that in doing so they'll eventually add up."
Damrauer created a special series of new prints just in time for Valentine's Day, The New Math of Relationships, for the Website 20x200. Damrauer describes the series: "This tapestry of equations could stretch forever, or at least as far as human interaction stretches. And that's, I suppose, what makes relationships so difficult, so rewarding, so brilliant and impossible."
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Huffington Post Sara Wilson First Posted: 02/09/11 04:27 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:30 PM ET