Bodies of Movement - Solo Show at Ely Cathedral Science Festival 2017

Art and Science Galore

Well we had a group effort at trying to make a new molecule out of paper, at the Night at the Cathedral, we managed to escape the wrath of the Daleks who have been lurking, but most of all we've had a lot of fun and learned a great deal at the Ely Cathedral Science Festival. Click here for a glimpse of the fun.

It is now the final week of the Bodies of Movement show at Ely Cathedral with lots of science related activities still going on. I'll be at the exhibition on the last day of the show, Sunday 18th June, making some models of work in progress. If you would like to pop along to see what I'm up to or have a chat, you are more than welcome.

Below is a short video by Rosie Reed Gold showing the making of the exhibition.

There is still time to crack the code of the Helix, which is the sculptural centrepiece of the exhibition. We have encoded a word into the Helix using the colours of the squares of fabric. I will be giving away a signed and numbered, limited edition print to one person who can crack the code and submit the correct answer. The winner will be selected at random from the correct answers. If you think you've got what it takes to crack the code, take a tip from Dr Francis Lister..... 'The first letter in the sequence is an unnatural amino acid, so start in the middle and guess the last letter.

Submit your answer with your name and email address to info@alexandracarr.co.uk

Bodies of Movement is a solo show bringing together the worlds of physics and biology through site specific work and drawings whilst responding to the awe inspiring architecture of Ely Cathedral. Motion, structure, form and scale are at the height of this work. I aim to reconcile the very large and the very small, from single celled organisms to the motion of planetary bodies. The work raises questions about an underlying code that connects all of us to each other.

Bodies of Movement is supported by Arts Council England and is part of the Ely Cathedral Science Festival 2017.

The exhibition continues until 18th June 2017.

For more information please visit www.bodiesofmovement.com

Guts and Grit in the Framework of Play

Last night I had the pleasure of talking to Professor Tom McLeish, Professor of Physics at Durham University, about the importance of play in research and the creative process. The value of rambling investigation and unexpected forks in the road, en route to your destination is, we agreed, a worthwhile undertaking. The notion of letting go of the end goal as soon as it pops into your head is, all too often, is an impossible concept for many, nevertheless, a practice destined to furnish you with unexpected 'gems and nuggets' as Tom puts it.

Both art and science seem to those within these fields, to be vastly misunderstood. As a physicist, Tom challenges the notion that it is all experiment, data, hard graft and endurance. Science requires enormous creativity, open mindedness, philosophy and even a metaphysical approach to the questions at hand. Similarly I'm often met with the opinion that all artists simply float on a sea of creativity, effortlessly producing masterpiece after masterpiece, without the need to eat, drink , sleep or pay rent; we simply survive on the ecstacy of creation gifted to us by our muses! Not the case. We too have our experiments and failure after failure after failure. You must devote your lifetime to learning your craft, you must be resilient to rejection, you must commit to the surprising mundanity your practice will throw at you, you must accept the guts and grit it takes to keep going.

All sketches and 'play' form part of the investigation of Grosseteste's scientific texts. This is part of a collaboration with The Ordered Universe Project, an interdisciplinary, international collaboration.

All sketches and 'play' form part of the investigation of Grosseteste's scientific texts. This is part of a collaboration with The Ordered Universe Project, an interdisciplinary, international collaboration.

Despite these misconceptions, art and science have one thing in common, they both ask the vast, sprawling, powerful and essential questions about nature and our relationship to it. They ask the questions bigger than us and this moves us deeply.

Given our common goals perhaps it's time for these definitions to blur as they once did in the age of the polymath and the Renaissance Man, when Tom would have been known as a Natural Philosopher rather than a Scientist. It's a term, I would certainly feel comfortable with for myself.

The beginning of a framework for a 2D relief piece, born out of 'play'.

The beginning of a framework for a 2D relief piece, born out of 'play'.

By accepting the guts and grit in the framework of play you are embarking on a journey of discovery that can be obtained by no other means. So go, be free and soak up your path of illumination and find the Natural Philosopher within.

Salisbury Ceramics Open

The Salisbury Ceramics Open is on until Saturday 14th November. So if you haven't seen it there's still time. With such a broad range of work in such a beautiful setting it is well worth setting aside an hour or so to soak it all up. If you happen to have the pleasure, don't forget to vote for your favourite piece which will recieve a prize at the end of the exhibition (hut hum!).

Click here for further details.

Elbow Room Preview

So the final touches are being made for the preview tonight. All is going well and we're very excited to see you all to bask in a wordy, arty, cakey (yes cakey), drinky evening in a lovely gallery in Battersea...all topped off with some live music.

Click here for a link to the facebook event and the details below also.