Chemical concepts basis for artworks

DEAN KOZANIC/Fairfax NZ

TENSION-RELEASE: Paige Allen, one of the exhibit's organisers, with a work by Akky Van der Velde.

University of Canterbury chemistry, fine arts and art history students have teamed up to create and exhibit sculptures and graphic designs based on chemical concepts.

For their Chem-pare/Comm-trast exhibition, which opened yesterday, chemistry students had explained scientific concepts, art students translated them and art historians curated the final pieces.

Senior lecturer in art history and theory Richard Bullen said the collaboration, which was funded by the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, belied the popular misconception that art and science had no common ground.

"Artists and art writers speak of the elegance of a line, or a design," he said.

"In science and mathematics also, the elegance of a demonstration or a proof is applauded."

Second-year chemistry student Yuri Filatov said his concept had been communicated well in Akky Van der Velde's sculpture and the exercise had helped his own communication of chemical concepts.

The sculpture represented the transition state of a chemical reaction.

"It went well with the curve," he said.

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Chemical concepts basis for artworks