hindsight, 2016

The work in this series was inspired by thinking about differences between my current experience making sculpture and my previous experience making molecules as a synthetic chemist. In particular, the molecular objects were so small I’ve never seen them by eye. Instead I relied on constructing visual representations of them 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. 

Photographs Dierdre Pearce unless otherwise indicated. 

petrie dish, 2016 (detail).

ocular interpretations, 2016, twelve from a series of thirty, collaboration between artist and the petrie dish.

translator, 2016.

prototyper 1.0, 2016. 

hybrid 12

hybrid 30

hybrid 32

hybrid 7

hybrid 9

hybrid 6

The above works are photographs of painted sculptures, captured using a faceted lens and mobile phone camera. The colour palette is reflective of the colours of chemical complexes made during previous chemistry research projects. 

© Dierdre Pearce