The Living Cosmos
[Event Detail for SEL lobby exhibit, October 5, 2007]
LIVING COSMOS: A Fabric that binds Art and Science
A Collaboration Between Artist Heather Green and Astronomer and Author Chris Impey
Description:
These pieces were created to encapsulate each of the seven chapters in Chris Impey’s book The Living Cosmos. Conceptual thumbnail drawings were developed to illustrate how materials and themes could serve as metaphor for larger ideas in the book. This in turn inspired the expansion of these metaphoric ideas and allowed the scientist to participate in finding possible materials and motifs through supplying additional, more prosaic writing. As these ideas developed, they became less and less literal, and through their construction, an internal logic evolved. The pieces can be viewed in any order; motifs recur and build on one another. Each is rooted in a theme, yet they are interconnected like the web of life.
The materials are universal. The sinuous molecules that bind pigments in oil paint are similar to those that beaded up in Earth’s primeval oceans to form the first cell. Glass is a translucent form of sand and it comprises the bulk of the Earth and of a myriad of Earth-like planets across the galaxy. Metal is a relic of supernovae, the fiery stellar cataclysms that also enable biology by forging and ejecting life’s elements. Wood and paper are among the means by which formerly living things are brought into our service, making art an indirect homage to carbon and biology.
The themes are universal. Living organisms are poised near the logarithmic center of a range of scales from the nucleus of an atom to the grandeur of a spiral galaxy. We struggle to understand the universe of which we are but a microscopic part, yet are amazed that comprehension is possible at all. We are surrounded by horizons and boundaries, yet some are as illusory as the limits we place on our imaginations. Protean forms of nature—from stars and planets, to crystals, fossils, and the delicate double helix of DNA—are the grist of scientific explanation, and of dreams. They inhabit both the physical and the metaphoric world.
The space between the artist and the scientist is defined by trust. Each is steeped in a distinct tradition; yet they find a middle ground between the palette and the spectrum, between the mutability of artistic invention and the obdurate exactness of data. They venture into that middle ground—cautiously but with great anticipation.
About the Artist
Heather Green is a graduate student in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona and a second generation Tucsonan. Her current work is informed by her lifelong relationship with the headland of La Cholla near Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, a passion for old science books, and her love of the natural world. She has designed exhibits about sustainable fisheries and materials for conservation initiatives, and is currently developing a virtual museum about La Cholla.
About the Astronomer
Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona and Deputy Head of the Astronomy Department. He works on quasars and distant galaxies has written 160 research papers and two astronomy textbooks. He has won ten University of Arizona teaching awards and was chosen as Arizona's “Professor of the Year” by Carnegie’s Foundation for the Improvement of Teaching. He is a former Vice President of the American Astronomical Society, and in 2002 he was one of six faculty nationwide chosen as an NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar. In 2007, he served as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.
- Dates: October 4, 2007 – Jan. 4, 2008
- Time: M-Th 7:30 a.m. – 1 a.m.; Fri. 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Sat. 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m. – 1 a.m.
- Location: Science-Engineering Library, 2nd floor lobby, north display case
- Contact: Maliaca Oxnam, oxnamm@u.library.arizona.edu, (520) 621-6386
- Cost: Free