A two meter tall DNA helix, constructed from over 600
bronze human figures was the centrepiece of artist Briony
Marshall's latest exhibition, Life Forming, at Pangolin London. The
works on display offered a humbling and awe-inspiring view of
science and a comment on the fragility, complexity and social
aspects of human life. Marshall took a rather unconventional route
on her journey to become a sculptor, first pursuing a science
degree before following her passion for art. We asked Marshall
about her decision to change her career, "I always used to have a
dilemma every year after leaving University and when starting a new
job, about going back to art school or going back to paint. I
rediscovered 3-dimensional work from doing an evening class,
finding sculpture intellectually challenging. Within four months of
this epiphany, whilst also frustrated at not being able to take my
art practise further, I secured a redundancy package and went back
to art school." Her Biochemisty degree at Oxford University "was a
four year course, with half of the fourth year spent in a lab
doing more targeted research." Similarities can be drawn between working
in a lab and in an artist studio, "funnily enough the reasons I did
not want to be a scientist was I thought it was quite lonely,
repetitive, as you are in the lab all the time. Being an artist is
a similar existence in some ways, however, I think you get to
decide what you should be working on whereas as a scientist you are
a tiny cog in a big machine, especially in the early years, helping
your professor with their research and so on. Some people do
amazing work really early on in their careers, but I think I was a
bit too impatient." Speaking of the DNA: Helix of Life
sculpture, there is a fascination with the beauty of its shape,
"I first read about the helix when I was a teenager, learning
about it in science. I was in awe of how elegant and amazing a
solution it is. Effectively it is a four letter alphabet with
bases, A,C, G and T that create this code for all the proteins in
the body, so in a way it codes for life. I'm still amazed by how it
can unzip and copy itself very accurately." The exhibition we learn
was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the discovery of DNA
by James Watson and Francis Crick, with over 600 bronze figures
joined at the hands and feet, each representing a different atom in
the DNA. The intricate work demonstrates ambitious talent paired
with a rather humbled view of society; that we must support each
other as individuals to operate as a whole. The Lost wax process
employed in her work to create the figures, we find was learnt
during a residency in Italy, at the Mariani bronze foundry in
Pietrasanta, which created the Ciromancy series. "It was where I
learnt more about specifically working in wax. It's an amazing
material, you can work with it directly and cast straight into a
unique bronze, or make a mould and make a series of waxes from
it." There is a mould for each of the atoms in
the helix, which are then repeated. "The hydrogen for example, the
little babies, there are several hundred of them I had to make. So
you have the wax, which gets coated in a shell or an investment
which its called. This gets baked in a kiln, which does two things
at once, its makes the stuff you put around it go really hard, like
pottery almost, but at the same time it melts out the wax, leaving
a hole. You then pour bronze into the hole the wax has left and
smash the investment to get the bronze out. I still get excited
when pouring bronze, it really is a thing of beauty when you see
the molten metal pouring out of the crucible." The end result of
pairing figurative sculpture with the DNA: Helix of Life sculpture
contemporary and engaging.
Chemistry and molecular science are big themes in the work, as is
the architecture of life showcased with the Carnegie Stages,
depicting five successive stages of embryonic growth. "I came
across these when doing some research, they are very early human
embryos, which almost look like ready made sculptures from the
cannon of art history. The first is little more than a flat disc,
but it has line of symmetry, called the primitive streak growing up
it and then as you progress through, you start developing form, you
see neural plates, which are the precursor to the brain, the
two dots on either side are called Somites and that,” pointing out
to me on one of the latter sculptures, "is the beginning of the
spine." There is, it seems, a need to understand the building
blocks of life, how complex organisms can evolve from almost
nothing. There is undoubtedly a creative harmony between her
scientific and creative side, "you have your rational, logical
problem solving side, but at times you have to be able to tune into
nature, visualise your work and take intuitive leaps as well. In
some ways I am using the scientific information to say something
more relevant, not just plain facts. To appreciate the beauty and
understand its relevance to us, whether metaphorical or
poetic."
Inspired by Fibonacci numbers, in Patterns of Growth, Marshall is
fascinated by the golden ratio, with an embryo centred in a
Fibonacci spiral, "it is an amazing mathematical number series we
find in nature, which we intrinsically find harmonious. This is
about the developing form, the Fibonacci spiral around the embryo
is representing all the influences of form, genetic inheritance,
environmental, physiological." Earlier works such as The Emergence
of Chemistry also look at how form develops in nature, inspired by
the theory of emergence and how the whole is greater than the sum
of the parts. There is a "series of figures inside platonic solids,
relating to the geometry of chemical bonds and order in emerging
3-dimensional space. Tetrahedron man is carbon which has four
bonds, the centre of the cube has eight bonds, another chemical,"
with the writing on the wall "all about the birth of the universe
and the big bang. The beginning of everything". The tetrahedral
lattice is extended further in A dream of Society as flawless as
diamond II, which draws interesting observations on the geometry of
the lattice, the figures from some angles giving the impression of
undulating waves. Exploring the complex micro world of
molecules through sculpture, the Enzyme series of work looks at the
chemical process of digesting molecules such as sugar. "I use sugar
as representations of people, for me it is also a metaphor for how
people live on the surface of our planet and are both changed by
and changing the surface. At the time when I was working on it, I
was quite concerned about climate change and the fragility of it
all. The planet according to Lovelock's theory of Gaia, is in some
ways self regulating but if it has so much control, maybe it would
get rid of humans, as a blight on the Earth's resources and ecology
for its stability. There is resilience, but how much of it is left
to stop us from permanently upsetting the
balance."
As the year long ‘Sculptor in Residence’ programme organised by
Pangolin comes to an end with this brilliant exhibition, what plans
for the year ahead? "I will be back in my studio in Fulham and have
been for a little while now, getting used to working in a smaller
space again." Marshall will also continue as Head of Professional
Development at The Art Academy. How did that come about? “I studied
there in the early days of the art school as it focused on
conceptual art. I went on to teach courses there, lectures on art
and science. Professional development is a difficult subject for
students. Being able to sustain yourself as a full time artist is
hard, but we try to give them the tools to continue being creative
and try to not be too professional early on, to freely explore
their practise.” You have said you draw inspiration from the
meaning as oppose to the monetary aspects? "Yes, I think that there
are easier ways of earning a living, sculpture in particular is
quite hard to sell because of the practicalities, but for it to be
sustainable, it needs to do both I guess."
Although we may have coded human DNA, we are just beginning
to unravel the mysteries it contains. Marshall's work explores the
beauty of science, with the assemblage of sculptures revealing how
at the smallest scales we are put together, but critically, how as
individuals we can also join hands to move society
forward.