May 20 – August 30, 2019
David J. Sencer CDC Museum
In Association with the Smithsonian Institution
Atlanta, GA
Curated by Louise E. Shaw
Doilies and Blank Stare included in The World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Science at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum In Association with the Smithsonian Institution. The World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Science gathers the work of ten international artists who draw upon microbiology, biotechnology, anatomy, and texts in their investigations of microbes and cells, DNA, history of disease and science, the body, and beauty. They all share a deep interest in science, and some are scientists themselves or collaborate closely with researchers. Some mine the images of the unseen world to comment about the debates that swarm around the intersection of disease and ethics—past, present, and future. Others are drawn to the abstract beauty of what is sub-visible—real and imagined. Several of the artists use their work as a starting point to understand the complex relationships between humans and their biological systems, as well as challenges facing us in the 21st century, including emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. Through paintings, drawings, installations, and videos, these artists ponder the humanistic and scientific implications of knowing and seeing what we normally cannot see.
Artists: Scott Chimileski, Ruth Cuthand, Anna Dumitriu, Amie Esslinger, Lorrie Fredette, Bojana Ginn, Nathaniel Price, Jody Rasch, Laura Splan
Doilies and Blank Stare included in The World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Science at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum In Association with the Smithsonian Institution. The World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Science gathers the work of ten international artists who draw upon microbiology, biotechnology, anatomy, and texts in their investigations of microbes and cells, DNA, history of disease and science, the body, and beauty. They all share a deep interest in science, and some are scientists themselves or collaborate closely with researchers. Some mine the images of the unseen world to comment about the debates that swarm around the intersection of disease and ethics—past, present, and future. Others are drawn to the abstract beauty of what is sub-visible—real and imagined. Several of the artists use their work as a starting point to understand the complex relationships between humans and their biological systems, as well as challenges facing us in the 21st century, including emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. Through paintings, drawings, installations, and videos, these artists ponder the humanistic and scientific implications of knowing and seeing what we normally cannot see.
Artists: Scott Chimileski, Ruth Cuthand, Anna Dumitriu, Amie Esslinger, Lorrie Fredette, Bojana Ginn, Nathaniel Price, Jody Rasch, Laura Splan
Artist Statement by Laura Splan for The World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Science
My early work prior to Doilies (2004) was particularly invested in medical imaging (microscopic, x-ray) and instrumentation (diagnostic, surgical, prosthetics). Much of my work at this time had a decidedly institutional aesthetic often using stainless display furniture or clinical artifacts. I was interested in continuing this exploration of culturally constructed notions around the body with a different aesthetic approach. I began to work more and more with textiles and craft processes as a way to foil the clinical images and artifacts of my work. I increasingly began to use needlework and sewing in often very experimental ways (knitting with vinyl tubing). I was introduced to computerized machine embroidery and was immediately intrigued by the materiality and technology of it. The computerized process allowed me a level of detailed representation of the viral structure that I could not have achieved by hand. The decorative quality of the radial doily form in the Doilies series serves as camouflage for the unsettling virus it illustrates. The series presents a multilayered experience that unfolds for the viewer on their own terms allowing them to move between narratives relating to the topical and historical, scientific and domestic, comfort and discomfort, hand-made and machine-made.
Since creating the Doilies series I have worked increasingly with digital fabrication techniques. With each new combination of process, material and technology I find new inspiration. I have since worked with a variety of computerized craft techniques in experimental ways including embroidery on remnant cosmetic facial peel, creating software generated patterns for computerized weavings, and creating data-driven 3D printed sculptures. The use of physical computing and the creating of custom software has become an increasing part of my recent practice. I often use microcontrollers with biosensors to collect data from my own body as I perform bodily movements in the studio or in live performance.
The Blank Stare (2016) series is part of this recent body of work. The series uses electroencephalogram (EEG) data collected while I stared at a blank sheet of paper. The EEG data recorded my fluctuating level of attention as my thoughts wandered from mundane noises outside my studio, to unfolding personal and global dramas. The data from each recording was used to generate a waveform that was then arranged in a radial pattern to be burned into paper with a laser etching process.
My work with digital fabrication techniques continues to allow me to work with materials and their meaning in ways that I find endlessly intriguing. The simultaneous presence of technology and material seems crucial to a thorough examination of the human body and our culturally constructed notions around its contested function and dysfunction. As I work increasingly with data as material, my aesthetics have employed abstraction increasingly as another mode of camouflage for the unsettling realities of our interior biological worlds.
...Splan swathes scientific observation in elegance. Splan’s creations demand a double take—a second look that reveals the scholarly rigor behind the pretty surface...
