Science & Art

The second project for my Ideas, Meanings and Materials module at university was titled 'Science & Art'.  We could pick anything science related to base this project on.  I chose to look at intestines, as I found many interesting images of them that I thought would translate well in both my 2D and 3D work.  Here are some of the images I collected through my research (sorry if anyone is squeamish!)

The top pictures are from a real human body.  I obtained these by watching a documentary called 'Anatomy for Beginners', which was on Channel 4 and is still on 4od.  http://www.channel4.com/programmes/anatomy-for-beginners  The other images are ex rays.  In a way I prefer these images, as it is not immidiately evident what they are, so I think I appreciate their beauty a lot more.  I also like the contrast between the colours in the coloured one and between light and dark in the other two.

In sculpture and ceramics I focused on the shapes of the intestines, the idea that they are intertwinning tubes.  To represent this in sculpture I sewed tubes out of different fabrics and stuffed them with stuffing before weaving them together.  My idea to use fabric came from the work of Barry Flanagan, a sculptor who uses canvas stuffed with sand in his work.  I thought this was a really unique approach to sculpture.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/8818655/Barry-Flanagan-Early-works-1965-1982.html

I made my ceramic pieces using extruded forms (if you don't know what that is basically you push clay through a machine and it comes out in tubes etc).  I then intertwined these and experimented with making marks to suggest the vieny nature of intestines. I haven't done a lot of ceramics before so my use of glazes and oxides is mainly experimental.  I have some other pieces where I was just experimenting with mark making and glazes but they are not on here!

My tutor wasn't too impresssed with this bottom piece when I was making it but I am actually really pleased with the effect I got with the glaze this time!

The oil paintings I made were based on the coloured scan from my research images.  I wasn't too interested on my paintings looking like intestines, I was more focused on how they looked visually, especially the contrast between the colours.  I actually enjoy the different interpretations I have heard about my work!  You can't see the colours too well in the top image; the dark areas are a lot more blue/bright purple, and the yellow is stronger like in the other painting.

I'm slightly obsessed with printing so I have done a lot of prints.  I did some etchings based on the x-rays I found of intestines.  Again, these were not based on the idea of intestines, more inspired by the beauty of the images themselves.  For this I used aquatint as I thought it'd be the best way to get the simple design and variety of tonal areas I was after.  I then went on to print the etching in a variety of colours, including contrasting colours such as purple and yellow and blue and orange, similar to the colour choices of my paintings.

I then moved onto lino print, and did so many that I don't actually gauge half my hand out if I try really hard!  I came across some prints by Peter Randall-Page that were based on walnuts, but were simple, abstract shapes.  These were a starting point for my lino prints, as well as my images of intestines.  He has a great website where you can find lots of his prints and other work http://www.peterrandall-page.com/about/prints.html.  So my prints started out quite simple and, naturally, I did them in lots of colours.  I then began cutting more areas away and layering up the images to get more intricate outcomes.  The colours, again, link back to my paintings through the use of contrast.

Any comments please feel free!