Josh Tiessen
Rehs Contemporary Galleries, Inc., New York City

“Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” [i] This philosophical musing from Qohelet, the “Teacher” in the Jewish wisdom tradition of Ecclesiastes, warns that the pursuit of knowledge, wealth, and all pleasures under the sun is nothing more than a vapour. The figure in my painting, whose silhouette is reflected in the windows of an old university science lab, is a modern version of the ancient teacher. He is a disenchanted wanderer in a world of smoke and mirrors, pondering the question, “What is the cure to the banality of existence?”

Similarly, the French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal described the predicament of being caught in the despair of human existence: “On all sides I behold nothing but infinity, in which I am a mere atom, a mere passing shadow that returns no more.” [ii]

Qohelet is intrigued by complex scientific theories and concepts. This painting depicts the idea of string theory: that at the subatomic level all of life is interconnected through vibrating strings of energy. The criss-crossing yarns inside the window are being woven into a nest by two Indigo Buntings. For me, sketching and painting are much like mind-mapping. Qohelet utilizes this non-linear approach of connecting the dots between seemingly disparate reference points, a similar method to John Nash shown in the movie A Beautiful Mind.

Reading modern cosmology, Qohelet is dismayed by the inevitable heat death of our universe. Perhaps the multiverse will be a cosmic saviour, the hope of other inhabitable galaxies with life-sustaining planets like ours that can be accessed through worm holes in Space. But, alas, this is the domain of science fiction and not based in fact. Through the window is seen a whimsical sunflower, like the ones in a Vincent van Gogh painting, and it captivates Qohelet. Despite van Gogh’s life of depression and sorrow, he saw glimpses of the Divine through nature. Likewise, Qohelet is fascinated by the ‘golden ratio’ spirals of the sunflower florets. The Fibonacci sequence of spiral growth is a cosmic constant, from the nautilus to the galaxies [iii].

While Qohelet is tempted to deem life absurd without any objective meaning, he is not wholly satisfied with that answer. He prefers to press into the mystery. Will the Intelligent Design he discovers in science and nature evoke in him wonder and desire for a world re-enchanted [iv], or is it merely a human evolutionary survival instinct to ascribe meaning to a universe of “blind, pitiless indifference?” [v]

Josh Tiessen
Artist

[i] Ecclesiastes 1:2
[ii] Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 11.
[iii] Boeyens & Thackery, South African Journal of Science.
[iv] Articulated by Charles Taylor in A Secular Age.
[v] Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden. 132.