Robin Rhode (b. 1976)

Robin Rhode’s series Pascal’s Plates (2011) presents a variety of triangular forms inspired by the French physicist and mathematician Blaise Pascal, after whose 1653 Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle ‘Pascal’s triangle’ – a triangular array of the binomial coefficients – is named. Rhode, who was born in South Africa and is now based in Berlin, is interested in sequences; Keys #2 is from the photo series Typing Steps (2011), in which the anonymous hands play with disembodied piano keys that appear as if by magic in numbers following the Fibonacci sequence. Simple forms become elements of narrative through Rhode’s distinctive storyboard style, blending physical performance and abstract shape in innovative and enigmatic scenes whose shadowy, monochrome presentation imbues them with a quietly dreamlike edge.