- Venue
- Science Museum
- Location
- London
The connections between art and science are always an interesting subject to explore. Added to this, the fact that this is an ‘art’ exhibition at the Science Museum, not an obvious venue for such a show, means that Revelations: Experiments in Photography is an intriguing prospect.
The exhibition sets out to investigate the connections between early 19th Century scientific photography and modernist and contemporary art, more specifically ‘art photography’. It is divided into three sections/rooms on early scientific photography, its influence on Modernism and its relevance for contemporary art.
In ‘Once Invisible’ (on early scientific photography) are many fascinating images of phenomena which were not able to be seen by the human eye but which science and photography were able to record by the mid 19th Century. These include microscopic forms, electrical discharges and astronomical sights such as nebula or the phases of the moon, alongside early x-rays and Muybridge’s famous records of movement. These types of images were taken by scientists but also by artists such as William Henry Fox Talbot, the famous early photographer. The images are not only interesting from a scientific point of view but are aesthetically pleasing and often of an abstract nature, so it is not hard to see why they might appeal to artists.
In the Second section, ‘The New Vision’, on the influence of early scientific photography on Modernism, the exhibition moves into the 20th Century and looks at the experimental photography of such well-known figures as Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray and Gyorgy Kepes. Of particular interest here are a series of striking black and white images of physical phenomena, such as of light passing through a prism, by Berenice Abbott and Harold Edgerton’s famous images of frozen action, notably of a bullet passing through a lemon.
The third section of the exhibition, ‘After the Future’, on contemporary art features large-scale photographs from nine contemporary artists who engage with the history of photography and enter into a dialogue with it by using its techniques or critically addressing its subject matter. They do so in new and contemporary ways. Included are such names as Walead Beshty, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Trevor Paglen. Of particular note are Ori Gersht’s barnstorming photograph of an exploding bunch of flowers, which nods at the subject of still life and Joris Jansen’s hugely enlarged details from colour film photographs which look like abstract paintings.
Revelations: Experiments in Photography sets out to ask the question of whether early scientific photography has influenced modern and contemporary art. Photography is a discipline which straggles science and art and as such is an ideal bridge between the two. The spirit of enquiry which is evident in scientific experiment has fuelled aesthetic experimentation as well. In photography the two have gone hand in hand. This was very clear in the work of the 20th Century modernist photographers. In our own day, contemporary artists are experimenting with digital means as well as looking backwards to analogue techniques. All this was started in the 19th Century, something which this very absorbing exhibition makes clear.
‘Revelations: Experiments in Photography’ is at the Media Space at the Science Museum from 20 March to 13 September 2015.
