The work in this series was inspired by thinking about differences between the experience making sculpture and my previous experience making molecules as a synthetic chemist.
For example, the difference between making and viewing sculpture compared to making and viewing molecular objects so small they could never be never seen by eye. In the past I relied on constructing visual representations of objects by reconciling data from a variety of instruments, each of which ‘sees’ a different aspect of the object under observation.
The project culminated in an interactive installation at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka. Featuring three absurd pieces of ‘scientific equipment’, the prototyper, petrie dish and translator implied equivalences between the laboratory bench and the gallery space. Coloured balls rolling inside the model petrie dish collectively produced a line drawing, while the translator traced visitors’ steps onto the gallery floor in a similar manner. The prototyper table could be used to produce warped representations of an assembly of colourful model components, assembled in printed ‘scans’ on the gallery walls.
Photographs Dierdre Pearce unless otherwise indicated.
© Dierdre Pearce