The Biomachine: Proteins in Praxis

The Biomachine: Proteins in Praxis is a collaborative exhibition between Arts University Bournemouth Fine Art students and the Structural Genomics Consortium. Students have been invited to respond to the medical research processes that happen at the Oxford laboratory. The exhibition seeks to highlight the importance of research into biochemistry.

Playing with the creative and destructive roles we have as artists and scientists, our collaboration with the SGC focuses on the dichotomy of the random and the controlled, breaking and re-making, the human and the post-human. The unpredictability of human and scientific processes allude to a spiritual space, the mind seeking to know the unknowable. We seek to explore human and technological intervention, the human desire to solve and control. The struggle to understand and repair the brain, body and environment around us being a process of beauty and futility; our self-importance as humans pushing us to create and destroy like gods.

Artists featured in the exhibition are: Jack Evans, Haven Xie, Bethany White, Jack Lyons, Hannah Andrews, Jayne Chalk, Sophie Sobell, Hannah Bao, Alanah Wallis, Jessica Tipper, Bonnie470, Sasha Corker, Anya Bliss, Seth Horton, Heather Savage, Alex White, Rachele Di Giovanni, Ellisha Brinkhurst.

The SGC is a public/private partnership focused on high throughput crystallography and drug design, who’s aim is to accelerate drug discovery by establishing a network of scientists with open access to SGC’s results. The Arts University Bournemouth is one of only a few specialist arts universities delivering subjects in art, design, media and performance from undergraduate to doctoral level, and engaging in nationally and internationally recognized research and knowledge transfer in the arts. The collaboration makes a valuable contribution in creating a dialogue between art and science, and in bridging the gap between two forms of knowledge – scientific and aesthetic.

Funded by the Wellcome trust and following on from the success of previous exhibitions, this year saw 18 students visit the SGC to develop artworks and design concepts in response to their research activities and around the themes of biotechnology, drug discovery and the broader concept of medicine. The diverse range of responses reflects the diverse range of approaches by the artists of the AUB exploring how we can transform complex scientific concepts into experiential forms of understanding.

The exhibition opens with a launch event open to all from 17.00 – 19.00 on the 27^th March, including refreshments at the Radcliffe Science Library, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QP. The exhibition will then be open until the 15th June 2019. The exhibition can be viewed by anyone with a bod card without appointment otherwise to book a viewing please contact the Radcliffe Science Library at enquiries.rsl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk. If you would like to bring children under the age of 12 please contact the library to discuss feasibility.