Thoughts On the Cyanometer and Quantifying the Unquantifiable
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Collectively and individually, Humanity has and always will strive to understand their existence in a world that often eludes them. While we have solved many mysteries of the universe, there is still so much we don’t know about the cosmos, or the depths of the sea, and even our own brains. In 1789 Horace Benedicte De Saussure, a Swiss botanist, created the Cyanometer: a tool for measuring the ‘blueness’ of the sky. Using this moment of invention as a jumping off point, Lindsay Tunkl will explore humanity’s attempts to answer unanswerable questions. Through a month long installation and a one night presention, Tunkl invites the viewer to explore greater constructs such as time, art’s attempts at making sense of our existence, and metaphysical inquiries such as connecting with the dead in an interrogation of humanity’s many attempts to quantify unquantifiable.
“The Cyanometer is saturated with notions of adventure and intrigue, melancholy and nostalgia. Somehow this all points to our attempts at understanding and conquering everything. We constantly strive to master things around us in order to feel safe and certain in a terrain that is anything but. Two things are of interest to me here: The desire to quantify the unquantifiable, and the despair of quantifying that which we desire.”
What does it mean to be human in the contemporary moment? When everything is seemingly tragic and absurd at the same time. It is Lindsay Tunkl's aim to create moments for this question to be answered, for the individual and for the human species. By researching and exploring subjects such as Affect, Death, The Apocalypse, Encounter, Solitude, Space (travel), Time (travel), Tunkl's work uses a tender and humorous hand to invite the viewer into reflexive experiences with their emotions, their perspectives, and their place within a world that is uncertain, scary and, more often than not, heartbreaking. Tunkl graduated from CalArts with a BFA in 2010 and is currently a MFA in Studio Practice and MA in Visual + Critical Studies candidate at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Her work has been shown in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.