Wild Knots
Jean-Michel Othoniel
Arsenal art contemporain Montréal is delighted to open the exhibition Wild Knots presenting the sculptural work of the internationally acclaimed French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel. The exhibition, comprised of 16 mirrored glass sculptures that take the form of Borromean knots, borrows from complex mathematical interpretations and algebraic topology. This ensemble of suspended and self-supporting pieces, all produced between 2015 and 2019, form serpentine lines, dynamic and tumultuous curves, and infinite loops. In a quasi-calligraphic gesture, they transform the exhibition space into a place of wonder, an abstract landscape.
The title of the exhibition is a reference to the work of the Mexican mathematician Aubin Arroyo, whose research focuses on wild knots and reflection theory. The mathematical theory of the knot reveals the existence of more than a million possible knots, some of which are called «wild» knots and have an infinite degree of complexity. The interaction of contemporary art and mathematics confers to the exhibition a fertile symbolic terrain, it generates invisible links between the rational and the intuitive. The shimmering textures of the sculptures and their strategic placement in the space produce a visual game that engages the viewer simultaneously in the inhabited space and in the reflected surface. Through its simplicity and poetic minimalism, the work of Jean-Michel Othoniel induces the feeling of wonderment.