Creative Lives: Colline Rennie and Alexandra Carr

This particular creative lives talk featured the works of the artists Colin Rennie and Alexandra Carr, both of them work within the realm of sculpture and they tend to use glass as one of their main mediums. While I'm not particularly interested in using sculpture within my practice, I found it interesting to learn more about a different type of practice and work than I'm used to doing. In terms of the work, both of the artists focused around the themes of nature and the area of natural phenomenon, the way that they combined the use of science along with art was particularly interesting.

The pieces of work that really captured my attention by Carr were the sculptures "Ether" and "Empyrean". Empyrean was inspired by the medieval theory that the sun spiralled and rotated around the earth like corkscrew, the way this as represented was through the use of spheres of gold dots that blinked in and out of existence as you walked around the sculpture. I found the idea of inviting more interaction from the public to be quite interesting, rather than just having a piece of work that was intended to be viewed statically.

However, Ether had the appearance of being a piece that was created a lot more spontaneously, almost instinctively when compared to the accuracy of Empyrean. Ether was made a site specific piece of work that was made for the interior of a cathedral. In terms of its materials and construction, Ether was made from 5km of nylon that was tied into small, intricate knots across the space. It isn't until that the space is illuminated that the true spectacle of the sculpture is unveiled, creating the illusion of an almost alien presence.

Following along this same vein of 'otherworldliness', Colin Rennie created a series of work that was a lot more definite in terms of form than Carr. The work having the appearance of suspended tentacles within glass, Rennie discussed the fact that his work is a lot more based on technology and precision than Carrs.