Art

Item Description

ARTIST:              Christophe Meyer
TITLE:                 Terre
MEDIUM:            Drypoint etching on vinyl album, 16” x 20”, unframed

This original artwork was created for Art on Science: 26 études an internattional portfolio featuring pictures by artists and words by scientists. This written commentary is by Françoise Moos, Neurobiologie Department at CNRS:
 
As a neural biologist, I studied the functional plasticity of neural networks in different physiological situations searching, from the molecule to the entire organism, the mechanisms underlying a physiological function or behavior.  Drawing and painting were, for a long time, the method of expression of my visual sensibility; drawn from research but making it possible to connect with artists. In Science, my motivation is to understand, to clarify principles, to establish real knowledge, to comprehend, step by step, the real world. The intuition essential to progress only has the force of truth once it has been objectively demonstrated. The world of Art brings a free spiritual and emotional dimension where expression is not constrained by the quantifiable and where the imagination can be enriched with visual metaphors. When the work of an artist challenges my scientific knowledge, my eyes seem to see the unspeakable, my shaken reason questions and tries to interpret. But the response of the artist always goes beyond, because it transmits its perception of the world, intensified by a vigilant acuity, not that which is deciphered and analyzed by the scientist. It is by this dialogue that I was able to access the sensitive world of Christopher and to understand the messages that he wanted to transmit.
 
The capacity of animals to transmit warning messages to us naturally emerged from discussions with Christopher: visual messages of which the force of impact cannot be disassociated from the engraving medium used: the vinyl record, whose symbolic dimension must be taken into account when studying the work. The wide eye of this willing elephant reveals a state of excitement. The white notches emanating from his feet are warning messages penetrating the black ground visualized on the vinyl record. This unique medium constrained the artist to transpose and adapt classic etching techniques. Here, the key element is the groove of the record, including the shaping and precise chiseling (by a dry point or a metallic brush),  permitting the creation of white or black beaches. Beyond the visual rendering, the artist wanted to establish an analogous relationship between his etching, the sound vibrations emitted by the initially burned record, and the terrestrial vibrations and infrasound emitted by the feet of the elephant and spread by the earth to alert the imminence of danger. The elephant camped on the grooves gives to the record the dimension of a planisphere, a sound universe on alert in which the initial grooves speak of the past and those etched challenge our conscience. The central hole and the peripheral grooves transform the record into a safari hunting target, luxury entertainment decimating wildlife. The isolated elephant, an infallible memory of a prolific past, signals that he is endangered, and that the earth as inhabited space is a lost idea, the victim of obsolescence, just like the vinyl record.

Item Special Note

Free domestic shipping.

All artworks are 16” x 20”, unframed and will be shipped with a printed copy of the scientist’s text.

For further information about the portfolio, please visit our Art on Science: 26 études website: http://AS26project.com