26 April 2012
Exhibitions celebrating the legacy D'Arcy Thompson to open at University
Photo opportunity: 5.30pm on Friday, 27th April at Tower Building, University of Dundee. All four artists will be present at the opening of the exhibitions.
Two exhibitions marking the start of a £100,000 project to enable the University of Dundee to build a collection of art inspired by the celebrated polymath D'Arcy Thompson open this week.
The exhibitions, featuring four artists who have drawn on the ideas and collections of Thompson, open in the University's Tower Building on Friday, 27th April.
'Coded Chimera' will be held in the Tower Foyer Gallery, and features the results of a research project by sculptor Bruce Gernand, a teacher at Central St Martins in London. Gernard's project was developed in association with the Natural History Museum and the Cambridge Computer Lab and explores the ideas of morphogenesis (the study of biological dynamics) pioneered by D'Arcy Thompson.
The Lamb Gallery will host an exhibition of work by three artists who are presenting their responses to the collection held at the University's D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum and to Thompson's ideas and writings. Professor Roger Wilson (Glasgow School of Art), B E Cole and Stuart Mackenzie have combined to create 'Heresies', named after the word Thompson used to describe his own controversial theories.
Thompson, whose 1917 book 'On Growth and Form' pioneered the science of mathematical biology and proved hugely influential to scientists and artists around the world, was the University's Professor of Biology. The £100,000 grant was awarded by The Art Fund, a fundraising charity enabling museums and galleries to buy, show and share art.
Curator Matthew Jarron said, "We're delighted to have these two exhibitions on at the same time to launch our new project exploring the extraordinary legacy of D'Arcy Thompson in the visual arts. They show the range of different responses to his ideas and to the wonderful collections we have in the Zoology Museum."
The specimens contained in the museum have long been a source of inspiration to artists, but the Art Fund grant will enable the University to acquire more works inspired by Thompson's work, as well as to bring more artists to Dundee to use the collection for their work.
The Art Fund awarded the money through their RENEW programme, which gave a total of £600,000 to six UK museums to establish new collections of art, which connect, in exciting and creative ways, with their existing holdings and current audiences.
Using digital scans of zoological specimens and customised computer software tools, Gernand morphs different animal forms to create hybrid shapes, inspired by the iconic transformation diagrams in On Growth and Form.
The sculptures, models and diagrams shown in the exhibition, which was first staged at the University of Cambridge last year, make connections between the process of sculpture and the principles of biological dynamics. At the heart of Bruce's project is a less scientific and more poetic concept, the chimera - a composite of different animal features which links to a much longer-standing artistic tradition.
Whilst the three artists shown in Heresies employ different media and approaches, they share a common interest in landscape and the forms that arise from it. All three employ close observation of natural form and extensive experimentation leading to the generation of forms which, they hope, will add to our visual language and our relationship with science and the natural world.
Both exhibitions are open to the public until Saturday, 16th June. On 19th May, a special drawing workshop will be held in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum to accompany the shows.
More information about the exhibitions, and how to book a place on the workshop, is available by visiting www.dundee.ac.uk/museum or calling 01382 384310.
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Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
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