Mercator #066 Painting

The "Mercator" series dates from 2014-2017 and was created in Paris. These are bi-colored, conceptual paintings. Their relatively low contrast requires a careful and prolonged look. These paintings evolve according to lighting and the underlying layers become visible. A fragile metal construction, inclined and in slight imbalance dominates these compositions. This work was influenced by cartography, measuring systems and concepts of space perception. The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines or loxodromes, as straight segments which conserve the angles with the meridians. While the linear scale is equal in all directions around any point, thus preserving the angles and the shapes of small objects (which makes the projection conformal), the Mercator projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the poles, where it becomes infinite.