Front cover
Foreword
What follows chronicles Alexandra Carr’s Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence project, Sculpting with Light. The residency, which took place May-September 2017, was based at Durham University and physically located at Ushaw College. Ushaw, which started its life as a Roman Catholic seminary is now open to the public as a conference and events centre, with a wide array of exhibitions, and enjoys a long-term partnership with Durham University. Sculpting with Light introduced Alexandra, a multi-media sculptor to a diverse group of academic researchers based for the main part at Durham University. Dr Giles Gasper, a specialist in medieval intellectual history, Professor Tom McLeish, soft-matter physics, and Professor Richard Bower, computational cosmology, hosted Carr’s residency and facilitated a wider range of networks and contacts, for example with Dr Mark Neyrink and Professor Brian Tanner, physics, Dr Annalisa Cipollone, modern languages, and Dr Eleanor Barraclough, medieval studies. The residency aimed to bring modern and medieval cosmology together through a series of multi-media artistic expositions. What resulted was a wonderful collaboration across disciplines, professional areas of expertise and media. Alexandra produced the centrepiece sculpture for an exhibition on Dante’s Divine Comedy, with a sculpture of the nested spheres of the medieval cosmos. The sculpture reveals the celestial spheres as the viewer moves around, complementing Dante’s majestic poetic vision of the cosmos at the end of his celebrated poem. Research into medieval notions of cosmology and modern galaxy modelling, research into Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and the physics of asymmetry provided the material for a series of other artistic outputs. Two temporary light/projection installations, Ether and Lux Obscura formed part of this, the first completed for a university access scheme summer school, the latter at the residency base in Ushaw College, County Durham. A third such installation Lux Mundi has been commissioned for the Bowes Museum as a result. Other pieces include film and photo-montage exploring light and shadow, a series of glass etchings tracing the pattern of light across a day at the college, time-lapse light photography to produce a light painting of the medieval cosmos, and a large-scale drawing chronicling the project, moving from the medieval spheres to modern galaxy clusters and the cosmic web. Supporting these outputs the Sculpting with Light team undertook a wide variety of activities, from collaborative reading groups on ancient and medieval science, to participation in the award-winning OxNet access to university scheme. Carr attended workshops of asymmetry, and delivered seminar presentations within Durham. A series of work-in-progress exhibitions showcased the project to the public, and were well attended. So too were two public talks, which mingled physics, artistic practice, medieval science and literature. Carr also spent professional time with glass artists at the National Glass Centre, University of Sunderland, and the Sculpting with Light team also took part in the SuperPosition ASMbly at Leeds, a forum for Artists, Scientists and Makers. The Ushaw College Trust were essential supported for the residency, which has impacted on the development of their cultural policy. The residency has inspired future plans for joint publication, and future collaboration, bringing these different areas of practice and thought together, using art to explore the the complexity, beauty and perplexity of human thought on the cosmos in which we exist.
Ushaw
Ushaw College, located about three miles to the west of the city of Durham, was founded in 1808 as a Roman Catholic Seminary, as the successor institution of the former English College of Doaui in northern France. The seminary closed in 2011, and the building is now open to the public, used for university study, and provides a rich array of spaces for art, music and community activities. It was a privilege to be hosted by the college for the residency. The location gave peace and quiet for reflection on ideas, its public spaces were ideal for communicating the project to wider public audiences. Alexandra and the Sculpting with Light team rapidly became fixtures in the building over the summer, and enjoyed contributing to the life of the institution. Steeped in its own traditions, but embracing its new role, the college was very well suited for an exploration of shadow and light.
Manipulating Media
Shadow Painting
Entropy, Energy and the Celestial Spheres
Light Manipulation
Ether
Lux Obscura
Empyrean