Newswise — ITHACA, N.Y. – For her newest work, Korean artist Kimsooja wanted to explore a “shape and perspective that reveals the invisible as visible, physical as immaterial, and vice versa.”
As artist-in-residence for the Cornell Council for the Arts’ (CCA) 2014 Biennial, she has realized that objective with “A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir,” which was installed on the Cornell University Arts Quad in September. It’s one of several installations on campus for the semesterlong biennial, “Intimate Cosmologies: The Aesthetics of Scale in an Age of Nanotechnology.”
The biennial theme intends to “show how artists address realms of human experience that lie beyond our immediate sensory perception,” CCA Director Stephanie Owens said. “Working with scientists and researchers makes it possible to produce art at the edges between disciplines … generating lots of productivity and new thought.”
Kimsooja’s 46-foot-tall structure features an iridescent polymer film developed at Cornell, reflecting light with structural colors similar to those in a butterfly’s wings. Creating it involved some diligent problem-solving by materials scientists in the lab of engineering professor Uli Wiesner.
Photos: http://ccabiennial.tumblr.com
The Cornell Council for the Arts’ (CCA) 2014 Biennial, “Intimate Cosmologies,” features several events, installations and exhibitions by faculty, students and visiting artists:
•“Needle Woman” by Kimsooja, Sept. 19-Dec. 22 on the Arts Quad. The structure can be entered by viewers one at a time by appointment; e-mail [email protected].
•“The Dimensions of a Needle,” Kimsooja artist talk, Sept. 18, 5:30 p.m. in Milstein Auditorium.
•Biennial Symposium, Sept. 19, with keynote speaker Paul Thomas, “Needle Women” project collaborators, panel discussions, 10 a.m., Milstein Auditorium.
•Biennial Reception, Sept. 19, 5-7 p.m. on the Arts Quad.
•A Sept. 20 workshop, “Creating an Art/Science Cloud Curriculum,” led by CCA Director Stephanie Owens and Australian artist and educator Paul Thomas, will lay the groundwork to establish a curriculum and other considerations for meaningful student engagement in an integrated study of studio art and research-based science.
•“Nanowhere,” Sept. 18-Oct. 3 in Martha Van Rensselaer Hall Gallery, a project by Cornell researchers Juan Hinestroza, Ruya Ozer and So-Yeon Yoon, with wearable sensors that detect methane and poisonous gases in a sealed gas chamber, and 3-D visual art.
•“Paperthin,” Sept. 15-Dec. 10 in the Physical Sciences Building Atrium, renders the textures of a sheet of paper at the nano scale as a 3-D landscape at regular scale, created by Joseph Kennedy, B.Arch. ’15, and Caio Barboza and Sonny Xu, both B.Arch. ’13.
•“ColorFolds: eSkin + Kirigami,” by Sabin Design Lab, directed by architecture professor Jenny Sabin, opens Sept. 19 on the third floor of East Sibley Hall. The interactive prototype of adaptive, foldable architecture features structural color change of a façade material, with nano- and micro-scale features and effects inspired by human cells plated on geometrically defined substrates.
•“Nanoessence,” by Paul Thomas and Kevin Raxworthy, Sept. 22-Oct. 10 in John Hartell Gallery, Sibley Hall. The installation compares atomic structures and vibrations between living and dead skin cells when touched by the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilever.
•“Illuminated Nanoscripts, Nanopoems and Nanogarage(s),” by Particle Group, Sept. 22-Nov. 15 on the Johnson Museum façade and in the Human Ecology Building’s Jill Stuart Gallery.
•“The Charles Babbage Memorial Nano Leaflets” by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Oct. 1-Dec. 22 in Sibley Dome, includes millions of microscopic leaflets made of pure 24K elemental gold, nano-etched with text by 19th-century polymath Charles Babbage, who invented the first mechanical computer.
Additional events and exhibitions will be announced.
Cornell University has television, ISDN and dedicated Skype/Google+ Hangout studios available for media interviews.
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