Leopold & Rudolf Blaschka: The Glass Aquarium.
with work by Christine Borland, Dorothy Cross, Mark Francis and Sophie Roët.
TwoTen Gallery: 1 March - 28 June 2002
210 Euston Road, London, NW1, Tel: 020 7611 8888
Monday - Friday from 9.00am to 6.00pm. Admission free
Nearest tubes: Euston and Euston Square.
To coincide with The Design Museum's exhibition of glass replica sea creatures designed and made by the 19th century German glassworker Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolf, the Wellcome Trust's TwoTen Gallery will be showing six pieces of their work accompanied by four contemporary artists, Christine Borland, Dorothy Cross, Mark Francis and Sophie Roët, all of whose work relates directly or indirectly to Aequorea victoria (the small jellyfish native to the Northwest Pacific).
From their Dresden workshop the Blaschka's made thousands of glass models of squids, sea slugs, sea squirts, jellyfish and other sea creatures for natural history museums all over the world. Startlingly realistic, the Blaschka's work is a remarkable example of the fusion of design and industrial production at a time in the late 19th century when the public was fascinated by the recently discovered science of marine exploration.
Continuing with this theme Christine Borland's video work The Aether Sea was created following her research fellowship in the Medical Research Council's Social & Public Health Sciences Unit at Glasgow University. Katrina Brown in her essay on Borland's installation for the publication "Progressive Disorder" says The Aether Sea pays "tribute to these creatures, the humble life form that has given birth to one of the most revolutionary and invaluable [biomedical] technologies."
Dorothy Cross' film Come into the garden Maude was commissioned by Public Art Development Trust and made possible by a 2001 sciart grant. Cross, collaborating with Professor Tom Cross, decided to combine research on the life of Maude Delap, an amateur 19th century naturalist who bred jellyfish in her father's house in County Kerry, Ireland, with investigations into the biomechanics of the box jellyfish.
Best known for his paintings of magnified cells and microbes based on scientific images of microbiology, Mark Francis has curated for the TwoTen Gallery a selection of engravings from his personal collection of 18th and 19th century natural history prints, choosing those which best reflect the theme of the show.
In Wandering Lines - Green (2001), made from silk, nylon monofilament, polyester (phosphorescent yarn) Sophie Roët breaks the 'normal' rules of weaving by creating movement through unorthodox methods such as highly twisted yarns which crinkle in hot water or stainless steel yarns that are rigid yet flexible. The fluid and undulating movement in Wandering Lines enhances the hidden property of the textile - its luminescence. Like the jellyfish which emits a rarely seen phosphorescence, Wandering Lines has a second self - an alter ego revealed only in the dark.
The Design Museum is publishing a catalogue focussing on the Blaschkas with essays by Henri Reiling, Chris Meechan and Dorothy Cross. The catalogue is funded by the Wellcome Trust biomedical charity and will be for sale at the Design Museum and at the TwoTen Gallery (via an honesty box). The TwoTen Gallery will have a small leaflet for the contemporary artists not represented in the Design Museum catalogue.
The Glass Aquarium is a touring exhibition organised by the Design Museum in collaboration with the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, where it will be shown from 2 July to 29 September.
Media contact:
Nick Hallam on 0207 439 0972 or media@nickhallam.demon.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
Biomedical relevance
Beneath the superficial beauty of Aequorea victoria - the small jellyfish native to the Pacific Northwest, and one of the sea creatures represented in glass by Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka - lies issues for contemporary biomedicine. This limpid, undulating creature is sourced for its green-fluorescent protein (GFP). Sequenced, cloned and expressed as a cellular marker, GFP allows scientists to see at a glance whether an attempt to introduce a gene into an organism has been successful.
But what of the ethical implications of GFP? The 'green gene' is becoming exceedingly popular with biomedical researchers, and has already been used as a marker in mammals reared for potential xenotransplantation. GFP has even been employed by the Brazilian-born, Chicago-based conceptual artist Eduardo Kac, who calls himself the creator of "Alba" - the green glowing transgenic rabbit cum artwork. Is Alba medical miracle or artistic chimera?
In relation to Sophie Roët's work, altering silk protein in the silkworm with GFP enables the insect to spin green fluorescent fibres. Potential applications will be akin to those for "spidroin", a silk used in bullet-proof vests and parachutes spun by a genetically altered spider.
With reference to Dorothy Cross' film and investigations into the biomechanics of Chironex fleckeri, the box jellyfish. Chironex fleckeri is an active swimmer, moving through jet propulsion, it also appears that the tentacles of Chironex may act as directional forces that could prove additional aids to their swimming 'technique' .Tom Cross has had samples of tissue of Chironex sent from Professor James Seymour at James Cook University in Cairns Australia to begin the process of developing micro-satellite DNA primers for 'genetic fingerprinting'. The forensic nature of collecting memory fragments of the life and work of Maude Delap mirror the scientific investigations leading to more knowledge of Chironex fleckeri.
Examining the sociological and ethical implications of advances in medical genetics is of primary importance to the Glasgow Unit in which the artist Christine Borland worked to create The Aether Sea. Similar issues are also being investigated by academic researchers supported by the Wellcome Trust under its BioMedical Ethics Programme.
Dorothy Cross's Come into the garden Maude, courtesy the Artist & Frith Street Gallery, London. Christine Borland's The Aether Sea, photo: Colin Ruscoe, courtesy of the Artist and the Lisson Gallery, London. (NB: these credits apply to any images used in press).
The Wellcome Trust's The TwoTen Gallery was opened in 1994 to show exhibitions that explore the possibilities of symbiosis between the biomedical sciences, contemporary art and culture. Specifically the Gallery strives to bring art and science to diverse audiences, present challenging and innovative works and concepts, and bridge ideologies and disciplines. The exhibitions also aim to encourage critical dialogue about important scientific cultural issues.
Originally conceived in 1996 by the Wellcome Trust, the sciart" target="_blank">sciart consortium - supported by the Arts Council of England, the British Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), the Scottish Arts Council, and the Wellcome Trust - encourages partnerships between artists and scientists to work creatively on projects that have a public impact.
The Wellcome Trust is an independent, research-funding charity, established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health. The Trust invested £810,000 in art that has public and scientific impact in 2001.