boojum: superfluidity, a phenomenon in physics, associated with superfluid Helium-3.
boojum: the boojum tree of Baja, California & Sonora, Mexico.
boojum: a particularly dangerous kind of snark, from the Lewis Carroll nonsense poem, The Hunting of the Snark.
snark: there are several different varieties of snark, some have feathers & bite, some have whiskers & scratch & you mustn't confuse a harmless snark with the apparently very dangerous boojum.
the taste of the snark is meager & hollow, but crisp (apparently like a coat that is too tight in the waist), with a flavour of Will-o-the-wisp. it is sometimes served with greens. it also sleeps late in the day.
while the snark is very ambitious & has very little sense of humour, it is very fond of bathing machines & constantly carries them about wherever it goes. it is also handy for striking a light.
the domain of the snark is an island filled with chasms & crags. on the same island may also be found creatures such as the jubjub & bandersnatch. it is the same island where the jabberwock was slain.
the snark cannot be captured in a commonplace way. the most common method is to seek it with thimbles, care, forks & hope. one may also "threaten it's life with a railway share" or "charm it with smiles & soap".
the science & technology elements are suggested rather than realistically described - the stone-age technology of a spear point, mechanical parts, the particle paths in a bubble chamber, a satellite, plant and animal cells, electronic components, an industrial fragment, stars. the areas of lettering are also elements, visual and conceptual, of the painting rather than simply descriptions of it. all this strives to span the human endeavour in the field, historically and in the present and also to suggest the possibilities for the future.
the bright colours and dancing lines were chosen to elicit a joyfulness and beauty and the white represents the enlightenment that scientific & technological discovery brings, while the brown areas remember the connection of all this to the earth, through us, who originated in the soil of Africa.
variations of some of the visual elements are repeated in all three paintings to create a cohesion amongst them, so that they can form one artwork even though they might seem quite different on the surface - this energises the artwork and makes it more interesting and dynamic and engages the viewer in that he/she must find the connections between them in his/her own mind.
you can call the various elements signs, in the sense that signs are abbreviated and simplified conveyors of information and the signs in the artwork collectively say that this is a place for science and that it is a good thing.
signs are everywhere in the world, instantly conveying all kinds of information and this is what this artwork strives to do, except that it is somewhat cryptic and thus engages the imagination of the viewer, who must figure out what the sign is trying to tell him/her and the conclusions would be different for different viewers and even different for the same viewer at separate instances. in this way it would be more interesting than something that conveys its message unequivocally.
the painted surface and imagery extend to the sides of the paintings rather than it being framed - this emphasizes the feeling that the artwork is part of its environment and extends into its surroundings rather than being isolated in a frame. rather than being a window through which you are looking, it becomes part of the building.
