Rhodes Reason

At first glance Simon Patterson’s Rhodes Reason appears to be a reproduction of the standard version of Dimitri Mendeleev’s periodic table, but closer inspection reveals that the names of the elements have been replaced with the names of individuals, some real, some mythological. 

The elements that are solid have been replaced with the names of film actors and directors, individuals from the world of arts and sciences have been substituted for elements that are liquid, and elements that are gases are now identified with figures from Greek mythology, while the majority of synthetic elements are unassigned. 

One of the focuses of Patterson’s practice is on language and the way that overlying one body of knowledge on top of another generates new and surprising forms of meaning. Patterson has applied the same technique to the map of London’s Underground system, star and constellation charts, electronic circuit diagrams, and typewriter keyboards, all familiar systems of organization. In the case of Rhodes Reason (named after a minor US actor), Patterson has based his alterations on freely associating the letters in an individual’s name with an element’s abbreviation. For instance, Cadmium (Cd) has become Candice Bergen, Oxygen (O) is now Orpheus, and Lithium (Li) has been ascribed to Bela Lugosi. 

Although humorous on one level, Patterson’s version of the table speaks of the development of language from simple naming through the association of objects or concepts with shared traits, paralleling the historical evolution from identifying separate elements to their eventual organization by shared properties in the periodic table.