For the last 10 months Glasgow-based artist Ally Wallace has spent two days a week in residence in the Nimmo lab at the University of Glasgow. Now the results of this exciting art-science collaboration are on show at The Memorial Chapel, Main Building, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ. The show runs until 6th of November.
Using a mixture of iPad drawings, felt-tip pen sketches, gouache paintings, and video pieces Ally has produced an eclectic mix of art as a means to interpret the scientific process in an imaginative and thought provoking manner. Ally has used everyday lab objects, sights and sounds to explore creativity in science. From inter-woven plastic bands found on a (messy!) lab bench (linked nucleotide chains?), to de-constructed images of agar plates (scientists like to deconstruct theories and put them together again, no?) to intriguing sound-scapes of the lab – the exhibition will certainly open your senses to the the engine room of scientific discovery – the lab.
Of the work Ally said “The aim of the project was to make art in response to the laboratory environment, focusing in particular on the work carried out by Allan, a Research Associate in Hugh’s group. The Plant Science group uses several different approaches to study the plant circadian clock, particularly the ways in which variations in temperature and light influence the clock and hence plant behaviour. Exhibiting here in the Memorial Chapel gives the work an additional edge. It is slightly surreal to show the outcomes of an art/science residency in such an emotive and seemingly unrelated venue as this and there is an interesting relationship between the work and the space which houses it”.
Further details of the art-science residency and Ally’s other work can be found, here, and the link to the exhibition video piece is: https://vimeo.com/141990692
The project has been funded by an Artist-in-Residence Grant from The Leverhulme Trust.
