Brigita Ozolins ‘Rule XII’ | Digital Philosophy
Brigita Ozolins is a Hobart-based artist and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the School of Creative Arts and Media at the University of Tasmania, where she has taught since 2000. Born of Latvian heritage, she moved from Melbourne to Hobart in 1983. Her practice spans photography, digital print, and installation grounded in conceptual inquiry into language, binary systems, codification, and the transformation of thought from analogue to digital form. Her work builds across series and installations over years, with each new body of work extending ideas from previous ones Kryptos (2011) and Codex (2009) both feeding directly into the conceptual territory that produced 'Rule XII'.
About 'Rule XII'
Artwork: Rule XII Year: 2015 Medium: Digital print Series: Unity — exhibited at Bett Gallery, Hobart, 29 April – 16 May 2016 Companion work: 'Rule XIII' — displayed alongside 'Rule XII' at The Royale Displayed at: The Royale, Hobart CBD
'Rule XII' and 'Rule XIII' form a pair two works from the same 2015 series that hang together at The Royale and speak to each other across the room. Where 'Rule XIII' carries the weight of the thirteenth position in a sequence one step beyond the symbolic boundary of twelve — 'Rule XII' sits at the threshold. Twelve is a number embedded in systems of order: twelve months, twelve hours, twelve notes in a chromatic scale. It marks completeness before the sequence moves on. 'Rule XII' holds that position in the series, and the tension between where it stands and where 'Rule XIII' goes is part of what the pairing produces.
Both works emerge from Ozolins' Unity series a visual exploration of binary code, the system of zeros and ones that underpins all digital information. The series traces binary code from ancient Indian Vedic prosody described by the scholar Pingala, through the hexagrams of the Chinese I Ching, to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), the German polymath who developed the binary number system that forms the basis of all digital computing. The works incorporate philosophical text from Leibniz alongside quotes from Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan, French writer Marguerite Duras, and philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari asking what it means to record thought, and what the shift from analogue to digital transforms or destroys in the process.
Seen alone, 'Rule XII' holds its own as a rigorous conceptual work. Seen alongside 'Rule XIII' at The Royale, it becomes something more one half of a conversation about systems, sequence, and the meaning carried inside a number.
Experience 'Rule XII' During Your Stay
'Rule XII' and its companion 'Rule XIII' both hang at The Royale — a 125 sqm dual-level luxury apartment in Hobart CBD, 450 metres from Constitution Dock and Salamanca Place. Staying at The Royale gives you both Ozolins works in the same space, alongside 'Breaking Bread' by Pat Brassington and three works by Blair Waterfield.
Want to explore the full Island Collective art collection before booking? The District in Hobart CBD displays original works by Louise De Weger. The Tempo and The Helm in Sandy Bay carry original Tasmanian paintings by Stacey Rees and Mindy Doré. Browse every artwork across the collection on The Artists page, or contact the team with any questions before you book.