Creative Lives Talks: Alexandra Carr & Colin Rennie

This week I attended my very first Creative Lives Talk, featuring Alexandra Carr and Colin Rennie over at St. Peters campus in one of the prospect theatre halls. I received an email saying it would be beneficial for me to attend these lectures, I was given a brief description in the email about what the talk would be about. Both of the artists predominately work in sculpture and often use glass as there chosen medium but have experimented in other media such as drawing, installation, photography and video/visual media. Both artists work with themes of nature, natural phenomena and the combination of science and art.

I will firstly talk about Alexandra Carr, who I found incredibly interesting, she considers herself to be a scientific experimental artist who creates new, provoking perspectives and dialogues through sculpture and installation. She showed a wide variety of her artwork and explained the ideas behind them, two of my favourite piece were "Phi" and "Empyrean".

"Phi" is an artwork that was creative with 2,706 individual porcelain components, each component has four sides, three of them white and one silver. They were orientated in the same direction except for a select few. From one viewpoint a silver spiral on a white background can be seen, from the other a white spiral on a silver background. This piece centres on the dimensions, proportions, curves and forms which have compelled and inspired man universally for millennia, exploring how geometry and mathematics play a role in the human perception of beauty in an attempt to understand its’ ubiquity and appeal. I thought this particular artwork was interesting and unique because on first view I believe you wouldn't be able to tell that there was two images within the same piece, but once moving around the artwork you would decipher the two spirals. I like the idea of having to move around the artwork and this is something that I want to involve in my own practise.

The other artwork that I would like to mention is "Empyrean". Carr was doing a residency at Durham University, researching 'Sculpting with Light: Medieval and Modern Cosmology'. Empyrean was inspired by the medieval cosmology theory of the spiralling sun in which they believed the sun rotated around the earth like a corkscrew. As the viewer moves around Empyrean, their focus shifts from the central spheres, highlighted by strategically placed golden accents, which spread further to the outer, more ethereal spheres. The growing spheres become more elusive in the viewers’ eyes. I found this work incredibly fascinating as there was an accuracy, precision and calculated nature to the artwork, there was a high level of perfection to this piece which I admire highly.

I will briefly talk about Colin Rennie, I didn't manage to take many notes for his section of the Creative Lives talk as I was using my phone to take notes which unfortunately died. Colin Rennie who I had previously met during my time on Foundation began his talk by showing his early glass blown sculptures which were large scale, 6-8 feet tall squid/octopus shapes which looked really striking and representative, they were really fascinating, the shapes were loose and curvaceous, they had lots of moment for such a still, fragile sculpture. As he continued with the talk it turned more scientific and more technology based where he used 3D programs like Rhino to manipulate and construct his sculptures, he could generate and create framework which were then precisely cut using the laser cutter to then erect and hold his glass sculptures in place. I managed to also attend his show which had featured in the National Glass Centre.