The world of today functions at the most extreme of scales, from big data and the endless expanse of the digital realm to global capital and consumption. In stark contrast, The Small Infinite celebrates the strength and endurance of the minuscule. Rejecting the current trend for grandiose gestures, the show reflects upon a world where worth and value are often represented through the most disproportionate of terms.
The Small Infinite unites a diverse collection of international artists whose work focuses on more intimate perceptions of reality, ranging from photography and works on paper to sculpture, video installation and digital interventions. The exhibition explores the theme of the infinitesimally small through a range of fine art practices as diverse as particle physics, the economic crisis, utopianism, hacking, virtual worlds and the materiality of film. A key feature is the inclusion of works from the series One Second Drawings by British artist John Latham (1921-2006), which act as the exhibition’s gravitational centre.
The Small Infinite returns us to a sense of humanity through discrete perceptual experiences that reject the spectacular, revealing profundity within the unseen, the intimate and the fragile. The exhibition serves to remind us that, under the hammer-blows of life and time, what endures is the small.
The Small Infinite is a John Hansard Gallery exhibition curated by Lanfranco Aceti with Vince Dziekan, in partnership with Winchester School of Art.