My current work plays on the sensuality and beauty which underlies sense and being itself. My work takes a literal look at the foundation of our physical existence. I create sculptures of proteins, the universal building blocks of life.
More important for me than accurately copying a molecule in all its details is finding a guiding principle and following it to see whether it yields artistically interesting results. The main idea underlying all my protein sculptures is an analogy between the technique of mitered cuts and protein folding. Life transitions from one-dimensional DNA to three-dimensional bodies by linking amino acids into winding chains, the proteins. Through the application of compound mitered cuts, a piece of human building block material, such as steel beams or lumber, can be “folded” into space. My technique utilizes the material in its entirety, which corresponds to the efficiency and economy of life. As in nature, there is no waste; there is only a rearrangement of parts.
I feel I am closer to nature if I apply its algorithmic quality than if I just copy its appearance. My work is quite literally algorithmic because I calculate my cuts from scientific protein data using a computer program I wrote. Beside this deterministic side of my work, there is an equally strong intuitive and irrational side, where my pieces stop working as scientific models and become pure art objects. An example is my Tall Fir Alpha Helix, 2003. I consciously diverge from making an accurate model of the spiral protein element of the same name by shortening the pieces proportional to the tapering of the 26’ Douglas fir. The accumulation of small errors in combination with the organic shape of the tree caused the piece to have a striking resemble to a human spine. That unexpected new level of meaning is highly welcome and one of my driving forces for creating such sculptures.
The structure of the alpha helix was discovered in 1951 by Portland-born scientist Linus Pauling, the only person ever to be awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes (Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962). I was commissioned to create a sculpture (Alpha Helix for Linus Pauling, 2004) in front of his boyhood home (now the Linus Pauling Center for Science, Peace, and Health in Portland, Oregon) to honor his memory. I used a 20-foot steel beam, cut it into 15 pieces, and rearranged it into a 10-foot vertical spiral visually balancing on one corner.
I often use conceptually interesting proteins to create my sculptures. Recent examples are a protein making up the spherical shell of a virus (Virus Capsomer, 2003), and the smallest unit of the photosynthesis apparatus in plants (Light-Harvesting Complex, 2003), providing all life on earth with oxygen and usable energy. The Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP, 2004) is a widely used research tool to study gene expression. GFP originates from a Pacific Northwest jellyfish and has been used to create animals such as green glowing rabbits or mice.
Creating organically shaped sculptures out of a large number of geometric pieces fascinates me, because the complexity of a living being is similarly made up of simple “inanimate” subunits. I want to follow science in its reductionist approach and present its isolated finds in an art context. Science needs to separate; it requires the scientist to detach himself from the observed object and separate the object into its parts in order to objectively analyze it. Art, on the other hand, requires the artist to become one with the object in order to transform it into an art object. Because of this, art has the unique power to heal what has been separated: The art object is an object that has been given life by the artist and the ability to live in the viewer. My protein sculptures offer an emotional experience of a world that is usually accessible only through our intellect.
Julian Voss-Andreae, May 2004