Truth & Beauty

Incorporating the Biomedical Image Awards 2002

Issue date: 6 November 2002

Location: TwoTen Gallery, Wellcome Trust, 210 Euston Road, London NW1
Date: 8 November 2002–21 March 2003
Telephone: 020 7611 8888
Open: Monday–Friday, 09.00–18.00
Admission free
Nearest tubes: Euston and Euston Square

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'
From 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' by John Keats, 1819.

'Truth & Beauty', a new exhibition at the Wellcome Trust's TwoTen Gallery, juxtaposes work by contemporary artists, designers and filmmakers, including Heather Barnett, Richard Morris, Anna Dumitriu, Barbara Strasen and Tracey Holland (all of whose work draws inspiration from the scientific arena), with contemporary scientific research images in the Biomedical Image Awards.

Exhibited for the first time in the UK, these state-of-the-art scientific images are lusciously colourful and extremely intimate, while their subject matter is diverse, fascinatingly disturbing and equally sublime. They include an image of a tumour attracting and feeding off blood vessels; the immune system in action; sensory fibres visually revealing pain and touch; fluorescence extracted from jellyfish tracking the chemical messengers of the nervous system (a technique now being used in research into epilepsy, schizophrenia and psychoses); insight into the structure of the devastating foot-and-mouth virus; and a functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) used to build a three-dimensional construct highlighting activity in the brain set off when we recognise a familiar face.

Juxtaposed with these images are works by artists such as Heather Barnett, who says of her photographic installation 'Cultured Colonies': "In the world of microbiology it is often the case that the most beautiful structures are the most dangerous." Her work forms a 'self portrait' exploring the identity of the individual within the medical institution.

Drawing a fine line between seduction and repulsion she presents a series of glowing footprints created by placing what might be considered clean feet in microbiological agar, the resulting innocuous organisms that live on our skin grow at an alarming rate and if nurtured can be potentially dangerous to their host. In Tracey Holland's 'Vessel', an installation spanning the entire length of one wall, translucent images depict the artist's vision of a personal inner world – a world caught in suspended animation – a metaphorical X-ray vision of the body. Contrasting biological transmutations and processes such as sexual cell division and images of sperm, ovary walls and blood corpuscles, Holland reveals a preoccupation with time, growth, fecundity, light and change.

Since the impact of photography on painting more than 160 years ago, artists and academics have long debated truth and aesthetics in new processes of image making. Now, in an era in which the sequencing of the human genome is coming to an end, scientific research undoubtedly produces striking images but scientists may argue that aesthetics are merely an accidental by-product. With media such as the microscope, computer software and fluorescent chemicals, 'Truth & Beauty' encourages us to question whether today's scientists are inclined to use artifice and manipulation in scientific image making, and in so doing, are they practising a form of art? Denna Jones, curator of the TwoTen Gallery says, "external forces often do compel scientists to integrate artifice or, if you like, art with science". Dr Jenny Whiting of the Wellcome Trust's Medical Photographic Library agrees, adding that "with modern imaging techniques and individual creativity, aesthetics become integral to the communication of scientific phenomena". Visitors to the exhibition will be able to judge for themselves.

Flicking through the pages of any scientific journal it is obvious that images are used primarily to convey scientific data; however, it is often their visual design that influences an audiences interpretation of that information. Selection, and enhancement are often necessary to ensure that the final product is better able to reveal the true phenomena than the original image. Faced with a choice to use one image in favour of another, aesthetics are important and artifice is surely unavoidable. To those who believe that science and art make good bedfellows, it is reassuring to know that the subjective as well as the objective are a common concern. To this end, 'Truth & Beauty' explores how scientific thinking can influence contemporary art, and how art can be found in today's scientific research.

Notes to editors

The Biomedical Image Awards 2002 are the copyright of the photographers and the Wellcome Trust and must only be reproduced in the context of the exhibition, 'Truth & Beauty'.
The Biomedical Image Awards 2002 comprise twenty-four of the most outstanding, recently acquired images from the Medical Photographic Library at the Wellcome Trust. The Awards began in 1997 and exhibitions incorporating the awards have been held regularly in the Wellcome Trust's TwoTen Gallery. The winning images have been produced by scientists using a diverse range of imaging techniques. Judged by a panel of experts in the fields of medical illustration, biomedical science and photography, the images have been selected for their technical quality, the imaginative or scientific nature of their subject matter, and their visual impact. The images form part of a growing collection of biomedical images within the Medical Photographic Library, which currently holds around 160 000 images from the earliest periods of civilisation to recent state of the art imaging techniques.
The Wellcome Trust's 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.
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 £800 000 in art that has public and scientific impact in 2001.