Infinite Rollercoaster Fun

The concept of infinity is among the most intriguing humanity has ever come up with. There is simply no material instance of it, no possibility of it outside of religion and fiction. Even the oldest thing we know of, the universe where all things exist, has a beginning and end. How could we even come up with such an audacious idea when we never have and never will experience it? I am at a loss to find any idea more foreign to our experience than the infinite. The closest visual manifestation of it are loops and mirrors. Two mirrors facing each other create an optical illusion that seems to approximate an infinite space, as physically inaccessible as the concept itself. Loops—like the rollercoaster in Marlene Llanes’ masterful surrealist painting, "Infinite Rollercoaster Fun"—likewise create a material representation of infinity. The endlessness of the circle, the infinite looping of its unbroken curves, remains one of art’s most visually engaging and enchanting motifs.