Of Ambiguity

(2019 – 138x110 cm)

The image of a nebula is treated as both positive and negative. The light is negative (black is white, and white is black), while the colors are positive (the original colors). The title is borrowed from Simone de Beauvoir’s book Ethics of Ambiguity in which she argues that all parts of our existence are ambiguous. Ambiguity is found not only in the philosophy informing this image but also in the material our of which it is made. Modern physics has given us concepts such as the uncertainty principle, the observer effect, and the well-known Schrödinger’s cat. Even light behaves as both a particle and a wave, depending on how one chooses to observe it.