These moiré patterned paintings by Anoka Faruqee are mesmerizing displays of color that almost appear to be moving, depending on the viewer's perspective. Moiré is two or more sets of lines or dots superimposed so that they intersect and create undulating optical effects. This Michigan native and Yale professor of art does amazing things with the technique. Faruqee commented on the paintings in a recent interview:
"While these paintings draw from tradition, these paintings are not traditional. The paintings speak to an industrial/digital logic. The notched trowels I use have the logic of the screen embedded within them: it is an on/off binary system: notch/tooth, notch/tooth. Wielding the tool is like holding the screen in your hand. The paintings aim to approximate not only the surface of the screen, but also the structure of the screen. The programming behind the screen is intimated by the trowel as well as a growing set of prosthetic devices emerging in the studio.
Moiré itself is a self-generating phenomena: the layers of patterns self-sort as they overlay and interfere with one another. The paintings thus they have a life and mind of their own. They are not images of interference: they are interference. This is the wonder and anxiety that much of contemporary life provokes: a hint of animation and sentience inside the technology."
See additional pieces and read more of the above-quoted interview with Faruqee here.