The Science of Arts and the Art of Science​
Andrew Carnie
Nina Sellars
There are many artists working with scientific themes or using science in their art...but here are just four of them to explore.
Practitioners
1. Nina Sellars is an Australian-British artist and lecturer who focusses on anatomy. She teaches anatomical drawing, and is also qualified to dissect cadavers, and this is evident in works such as Creation, a reworking of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam which makes use of her drawing accuracy, and strong knowledge of anatomy. Sellars has also collaborated with the art world’s enfant terrible Stellarc to use parts of her own body in a piece. Blender uses some of the artist’s adipose tissue, along with her collaborator’s nerves and blood and blends them around the machine which they constructed. Somewhat less challenging for viewers is Lumen which makes use of the dual meaning of lumen-as a part of a cell and for light-to show microscopic images of glass structure.
See more here
Andrew Carnie has studied both arts and sciences in his academic life including chemistry, zoology, painting, psychology and fine art in the mix. His art is tied to medical science themes such as neuroscience and death. Calcium Craving is a slide installation showing a saggital section of the brain, whilst Slice [http://www.tram.ndo.co.uk/slice.htm] is an installation which progresses through the whole body in section. His current work An Open Heart is being created in collaboration with the transplant team at Toronto hospital.
See more here
Dumitriu is an artist in residence at both the University of Hertfordshire and University of Sussex.
Her installation works are centred around the ethics of new technologies and make use of microbiological materials in the art itself. She is director of the Institute for Unnecessary Research , a collaboration between artists and researchers.
Lab Coat Flora joins the ladylike pursuit of needlework with that laboratory stalwart, the lab coat, decorating a coat in intricate designs of bacteria to produce a piece designed to ignite conversation about what feminine science is. Meanwhile Hypersymbiont Enhancement Salon combines another feminised activity, the beauty salon, with super bacteria in a performance art piece.
See more here
1. Glass artist Luke Jerram is unusual amongst visual artists by being colour blind. You would think this posed a significant hurdle in a career that uses colour so often, however, Jerram’s sculptures show this is not so. His glass microbiology includes a range of
viruses from HIV to Malaria . Jerram regards the multi-coloured virus images which are often used to show killer diseases in both popular and science articles, as ineffective, due to their disconnect with the reality of transparent viruses. Jerram has also been commissioned to redesign the front of Bristol Royal Infirmary.
See more here
Anna Dumitriu
Luke Jerram