13 March 2006

Inspiration & Discovery: Exhibition Opening

David Mach with Lorraine Anderson, Dr Paul Andrews, Paul Harrison, John McGhee, Professor Elaine Shemilt

Centrespace, Visual Research Centre, Dundee Contemporary Arts
Preview: Thursday 16th March 2006, 6 - 8pm
Exhibition: Friday 17th - Friday 31st March 2006

When artists and scientists collaborate ideas explode, predictions implode and unexpected synergies emerge.

On Thursday 16th March the Inspiration and Discovery exhibition 2006 will unveil to the public, for the first time, "Biowoman" - international artist and sculptor David Mach’s exuberant embodiment of 21st century monumental art and life sciences - a nine-foot model of an envisaged "bioColossus" nonchalantly straddling the area between the arts and sciences on the University of Dundee campus.

The work, and associated collages, is Mach’s response to a period as Visiting Professor of Inspiration and Discovery at the University, mixing with scientists and artists, students and staff, at a time when the University has also been evolving its campus redevelopment plan. Initial plans for a purpose-built Inspiration Studio, to be constructed by the University’s architecture students, and to house future art /science initiatives will also be revealed.

Unexpected synergies are well demonstrated in this exhibition - where potato pathogens yield the pattern of their secrets, computer games technology brings physiological processes to life for patients, designs inspired by pollen structures unexpectedly soothe asthmatics and the exquisite relationship between form and function is explored.

The Inspiration and Discovery exhibition 2006 marks the conclusion of the Inspiration and Discovery programme, funded by the Wellcome Trust, to catalyse collaborations between artists and scientists in the wider communication of science. The University of Dundee is uniquely well placed to lead art-meetsscience activity, with its combination of world-class life sciences and one of the UK’s leading art schools.

Exhibitors include: David Mach FRA - international artist and sculptor and the University of Dundee’s Visiting Professor of Inspiration and Discovery, Professor Elaine Shemilt FRSA - Chair of Fine Art Printmaking, Paul Harrison - research assistant at the VRC, John McGhee - whose research explores the use of 3-D visualisation techniques to enhance medical scan data, Dr Paul Andrews - currently investigating the mechanisms of chromosome segregation in human cancer cells, and Lorraine Anderson - Master of Design student of the year 2004 at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design.

Jazz band, The Elder Statesmen, will provide live entertainment on the preview night of the Inspiration and Discovery exhibition 2006.

Please contact Vicky Hale, Project Co-ordinator at the VRC for more information: 01382 388064 / v.hale@dundee.ac.uk or visit: www.vrc.dundee.ac.uk/Visual_Research_Centre/whats_on/
VRC open: Wednesday - Friday 10.30am - 5.30pm Saturday & Sunday 12.30pm - 5.30pm

Visual Research Centre Dundee Contemporary Arts 152 Nethergate Dundee DD1 4DY
t: 00 44 (0) 1382 388064 f: 00 44 (0) 1382 388105 e: vrc@dundee.ac.uk w: www.vrc.dundee.ac.uk

The Inspiration & Discovery brochure is available in pdf format here.

For more information contact:

Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk