Illuminating the Crossroads: Perspectives on the Intersection of Art and Science

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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.

Illuminating the Crossroads strives to show how science and art come together to speak a common language. Science is the quest to understand the physical world around us. Art is the desire to express the mental world within us. They can be characterized, respectively, as our innate intellectual curiosity about nature, and our ability to conceptualize abstract ideas and emotions – both exclusively human traits. At the crossroads of these two philosophies is a metaphysical realm that explores what it fundamentally means to be human.The exhibition brings together two spheres between which dialogue is rarely exchanged, and little collaboration takes place. And yet, on a more profound level, these two areas of knowledge both represent manifestations of some of the most basic things that make us human. In the end, increasing the interchange of ideas at the crossroad of the two will not only bring us new discoveries and progress, but also bring us closer in touch with the essence of humanity.

Flow, Jin, Siyon, 2011, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Flow is one of a unique series of media installations, composed of a video playing on a monitor framed by Korean lacquer. The video is a recording of LED lights, tracing out intricate paths, much like the long ribbon-like sleeves of traditional Korean dancing. Jin’s experimental work with light in art is groundbreaking in studying the correlation between man's technological medium and nature. Light represents man’s life energy, and Jin treats it as the transporter bringing harmony between man-made civilization and nature.
Light and Human, Nature, Jin, Siyon, 2004/2010, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Light and Human, Nature by Jin Siyon is a video installation using the medium of LED lights to create a 3D representation of a human figure. Each light is mapped to a certain portion of the body, and moves as the figure moves dynamically. The video is displayed on public buildings by playing through media facades.
Wirbelwerk, Olafur Eliasson, 2012/2013, From the collection of: Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau
Wirbelwerk by Olafur Eliasson is composed of colored-glass triangles bound together by winding metal tubes. This installation is hung from the ceiling, with its razor sharp apex hovering just meters above the viewer’s head. Within the structure is a light source that refracts off the glass shards to illuminate the room and form intricate shadows and speckles of light that cascade across the walls. This projection of images across the entire room lends itself to the image of a dynamic vortex.
Instant Landscape- machine #6, Kim, Nampyo, 2010, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Instant Landscape- machine #6 by Korean artist Kim Nampyo is a contemporary painting that incorporates Surrealist features, combining elements of man-made objects with nature. Drawing upon both Eastern and Western traditions, Kim chooses Asian-style calligraphic strokes for certain elements like the plants, and a more representational-style for the zebras, truck and grass on the ground. The juxtaposition between the idyllic natural components of the scene and the rusty truck encroaching upon and corrupting nature invites the viewer to examine man’s impact on the environment.
Machine B3 and Nature (in the Bible), Ambrogio Magnaghi, 1963, From the collection of: Museo Diocesano Milano
Machine and nature are placed next to each other in stark contrast in Ambrogio Magnaghi’s Machine B3 and Nature. The bush is an allusion to the Biblical story of Moses and the burning bush. Themes of religion and mythology go directly against the the factuality and concreteness of technology and scientific progress, represented by the machine. The machine resembles an engine of sorts, that generates heat. Like the heat generated by natural biological processes in plants, our technological advances parallel that which we find in nature.
Dragon and the Fourth Meeting, Won, Seoung Won, 원성원, 2008, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Technology and artistic narration come together in Won Seoung Won’s fragmentation artwork Dragon and the Fourth Meeting, which depicts a violent clash between nature and civilization in which a dragon is injured by human hands upon entering a building. With the whim of her unintentional subconscious outbursts, Won splices together numerous fragmented images to create a dynamic cinematic story.
Head, Rafael Ferrer, c.1960 - c.1966, From the collection of: Art Museum of the Americas
Head by Rafael Ferrer is a steel structure resembling a human figure. The head portion is a mesh of discrete geometric shapes, gears, and levers, all coated in a monotone green. The head consists of two metal plates that come together with metal rods, and large circle cutouts for the eyes allow one to see the internal structure. The rest of the structure is a vibrant red; the neck and lower body are straight beams, and the mid-body is formed f thick curvilinear hoops intertwined with each other. The dichotomy between the head and the rest of the body conveys the mind-body problem.
Red Ibis, Eudocimus ruber, Albertus Seba, 1734, From the collection of: Museums Victoria
One of the most outstanding examples of early 18th century scientific drawings, Red Ibis conforms to the style typical of natural history artwork of the time depicting plant and animal specimens. This particular illustration appears in the Thesaurus by Albertus Seba, and though the actual artist is unknown, a meticulous scientific approach was clearly taken, and detailed, accurate representation was expected. However, unlike the isolated, unadorned style of naturalist illustrations in later centuries, natural history art at the time often had an exotic element. Red Ibis is one such example, where unrelated species are depicted together in a dramatic pose for effect. The two snakes are coiled in an artificial knot-like fashion, looking threateningly at the ibis to create tension, evidence of an artist’s input in an otherwise wholly natural scene.
ERUSSISIOM - Map of ERUSSISIOM, Park, Jaehwan, 2011, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Erussisiom is a series of artworks incorporating mold, in which the growth and formation of this versatile fungus is compared to the course of human history. In this piece is a world map in which the continents are shaped from mold to symbolize the connection between human settlement and the life cycle of mold. On the wall is a pencil drawing outline of the world map, and directly in front is the world map resting in a glass case.
Contemplation, Choi, Hyo Soon, 1999, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
In Contemplation, Choi Hyo Soon paints a nature scene with a faded, sepia-tone palette. A toy plastic horse with mock wooden texture stands in the middle of a field behind a low wall. Two accompany it, one resting on its back and the other flying towards it, the only dynamic element. There is a feeling of forced perspective that makes the scale ambiguous, making the horse appear larger than life like the Trojan horse. The toy represents how nature can be changed by human hands, and how, through an understanding of science, we can alter reality and our perception of it.
Meditation, Choi, Hyo Soon, 2001, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Meditation by Choi Hyo Soon is an acrylic canvas painting that depicts a mechanical wheelbarrow plagued with moss. In the foreground is a crumbling low wall, also being attacked by moss, and in the background is a tall metal post. This scene is placed in a quaint backdrop, with rolling savanna grasslands, a clear blue sky, and mountains in the distance. This painting depicts that nature consumes everything that we abandon, and that despite how industrialized of a society we develop, we will always be inextricably connected to nature.
Beyond the Horizon, Choi, Hyo Soon, 1996, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Natural and artificial, real and abstract, all come together in Choi Hyo Soon’s Beyond the Horizon, a painting that reflects the author’s meditations on expressing worldly subjects through a surrealistic approach. A fisherman is seen sailing towards the foreground, looking towards a window opened through the grey fog into the blue sky beyond. A curtain cascades out of the window, melding seamlessly with the ripples on the water surface. Flowers and butterflies peer through, adding splashes of vividity and life into the otherwise dull grey scene. The title of the piece suggests that this is what lies beyond our earthly realm; a place where objects and ideas, can physically coexist. It can also be seen as a metaphor for death, with the boats reminiscent of Hades’s ferryman Charon crossing the Styx.
Mis Pensamientos, Roma, 2010/2013, From the collection of: graffitimundo
Perfectly incorporating geometric shapes with organic forms, Roma’s distinctive piece Mis Pensamientos, translated as My Thoughts, offers us a glimpse into the artist’s mind. Roma started as a traditional graffiti artist, dealing mostly with letterforms, before his style evolved to be far more abstract. The regularly colored stellated polyhedra, with their sharp, defined edges, emerge from a backdrop of smooth curves, faded gradients, and intricate patterns. The contrast in the piece captures the duality of the conscious and unconscious within us all. There is a constant internal battle between trying to think logically, within the rules and laws we have set and discovered, and our natural inclination to follow emotion over reason, and let our thoughts take us wherever it so wishes.
Ambiguity-Collection-09-4, Kwon, Ki Beom, 2009, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Kwon Ki Beom’s Ambiguity Collection is a study of the dichotomy between geometric and organic forms. In this piece is a pencil drawing, in which organic forms are shaded lightly to create an obscured border, and geometric forms are shaded darkly with well-defined borders to accentuate them from the white canvas background. The seamless integration of organic with geometric suggests that, in nature, geometric beings are simply snapshots of ever changing organic beings.
Melencolia I, Albrecht Dürer, 1514, From the collection of: Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
One of the most famous engravings by German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer, Melancholia I depicts an enigmatic collection of symbols and objects. There an underlying theme of science and mathematical order in the elements, in particular, the truncated polyhedron and the 4x4 magic square. The title refers to the ancient natural philosophers’ theory of temperaments – that the four basics type sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic personalities are mediated by the balance and imbalance of four bodily fluids – and may be seen as a precursor to a modern scientific theory. Dürer believed that the melancholic trait is the distinguishing trait of an artist endowed with genius.
Senza titolo (Triplo igloo), Mario Merz, 1984 - 2002, From the collection of: MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts
Crafted by Mario Merz, Triplo Igloo is an installation of three concentric domes, each formed of large glass panels clamped to curved metal rods that form the structures of the domes. The circular bases of the igloos increase in size governed by the Fibonacci sequence. In blue neon lights are the first six Fibonacci numbers that encircle that are placed on the domes. These domes embody our world, and show how nature is remarkably well defined, and that Fibonacci-like patterns are ubiquitous in nature.
Sappers at Work : Canadian Tunnelling Company, R14, St Eloi, Bomberg, David, 1918 - 1919, From the collection of: Imperial War Museums
Sappers at Work was painted by British artist David Blomberg during the first World War, under commission by the Canadian government. Canadian workers are depicted tunnelling to plant mines that will comprise the enemy position. Blomberg took a Futurist and Cubist approach, while still maintaining Representationalism in the human figures. The straight geometric beams propping up the curved walls of the tunnel create tension in the piece, reflecting the high tension that inevitably comes with war.
Composition-The Four Star No.1, Yoo, Hyun Mi, 유현미, 2008, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
At first glance, Composition by Yoo Hyun Mi appears to be a painting of abstract numerical elements, but it is in fact a photograph of an installation. Yoo plays with the idea that time and progress can run both ways: artists have always tried to paint as realistically as possible, and now he reverses that by purposefully making a photograph that perfectly captures realism appear painted. The numbers are central to the idea that logic and order need not be separate from art; that scientific law pervades all that is around us.
Catch Me If You Can, Lee, Joong Keun, 2008/2009, From the collection of: Korean Art Museum Association
Catch Me if You Can by Korean artist Lee Joong Keun is a style of algorithmic artwork in which the apollonian gasket fractal is used to generate circles to fill up the photograph. This piece is a play on the contemporary film Catch Me if You Can; a Korean man holding a wad of cash is iterated throughout the entire photograph.
Pair of gates from the Chanin Building, Unknown, 1928, From the collection of: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Pair of Gates designed by architectural sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan served as gates to the private office of Irwin Chanin in the Chanin Building. Each gate is a mirror image of the other, and is formed of gears, spirals, curves, and structural rectangular rods. The gates are highly geometric in design; along the perimeter of each gate is a horizontal rectangle and longer vertical rectangle, which are attached to a large trapezoidal section. These gates were designed to complement the Art Deco style of the geometric, lavish design of the building.
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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.
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