ONE SMALL SEED MAGAZINE Issue #26 Digital 01 | Page 66

Cape Town-based photographicartist Oliver Barnett’s aim is to ‘unite
scientific and spiritual realms to invoke balance in the way humans interact
with nature'. In photographs, he appropriates sights in our environment that
attracted his sensory curiosity and, with the help of symmetry, he creates
a completely new image. When looking at the abstract result, it’s often
hard to fathom that the artwork’s essence is in fact rooted in the tangible
'real’. The connection to its organic source is there, but it’s disguised in
an obscure, semi-fabricated and artfully balanced façade. What’s more,
while the images' shapes, colour and lines differ in detail, one could argue
that there’s a recurring theme, a golden ratio if you will… a categorical
concept that weaves through the series. This need to classify calls forth an
often-discussed philosophical question about aesthetics: Is there a general
theory we can apply to beauty inherent to the workings of this world?
Watch a behind-the-scenes video here.
'Quillandra'

'Synesthesia'