FOCUS ON
THE SERIES
Moon fantasIes
This FOCUS takes a closer look at painting no. 11 from the current exhibition in our viewing room.
Current exhibition
painting no. 11
80 × 80 cm
DOTS, HOLES AND
ENCRYPTED MESSAGES
The paintings in the MOON FANTASIES series contain several hidden messages encrypted using CODE BACH®.
Look closely at the white disc and the blue background around it.
The encrypted messages and the PIN or password needed to unlock them take two visible forms: holes of different sizes in the disc and painted circles on the blue ground.
On the white disc, a small hole represents the digit 0 and a large hole represents 1.
Start at the lower left of the disc and read the first five holes from left to right.
The sequence is 00111.
On the left side of the image, look for rows of five circles.
A hollow circle represents 0 and a filled circle represents 1.
Read from left to right, the bottom row gives 10010.
ART &
MATHEMATICS
The holes and dots shown above serve as graphic symbols representing the two binary digits, 0 and 1.
Their arrangement on the canvas is determined by preliminary mathematical calculations carried out as part of the CODE BACH® message encryption process.
a FAMOUS PHRASE
ENCRYPTED
IN THE PAINTINGS
One of the messages encrypted in the MOON FANTASIES series is the famous phrase spoken by astronaut Neil Armstrong when he set foot on the Moon on 21 July 1969:
“One small step for a man,
one giant leap for mankind.”
TWELVE
VARIATIONS
The MOON FANTASIES series comprises twelve square paintings, each measuring 80 × 80 cm.
Acrylic on canvas, with a circular canvas glued onto a square canvas.
Painted in 2023.
Digital
settings
other encrypted paintings
in our current exhibition
explore
other foCUSES
Discover the stories behind other paintings by Jean-Claude Bossel.
