
Auerbach is interested in the way structures and patterns operate in systems such as language, physics and geometry. Some of her other notable projects — which often operate at the borders of mathematics, science and craft — include Flow Separation (2018), featuring a boat painted in a contemporary version of ‘dazzle’ camouflage, and her series of marbled papers. ‘A person who spends their days marbling learns a lot about fluid dynamics — about viscosity, flow patterns, surface tensions, relative density — all through their fingertips,’ she has said.
Embossment Painting #14 (2011) is part of Auerbach’s exploration of colour, light, form and negative space — or what she has termed ‘working in the fourth dimension’. It was made by placing objects acquired from a hardware store — including textured Plexiglas, chicken wire and rubber mats — over sheets of embossed paper and running them through a printing press. The raised surfaces were then airbrushed from raking angles and left to dry. For the final stage, the paper was flattened, leaving only a visually complex, two-dimensional record in colour of the object’s undulating topography.