Wyllie O Hagan with Professor John Hartley at the ICH Gallery

Transformations in Science and Art April 2005

Transformations in Science and Art - a forty two metre cross-media, textile artwork examines the growing awareness of the biological blueprint, DNA, and the vital role it plays in the development of medical research and drug therapy.
It celebrates the life and work of the scientists engaged in Cancer Research, and all who are touched by this.

Denise Wyllie and Clare O Hagan, as Artists in Residence worked with Professor John Hartley and his team at a Cancer Research UK Funded Laboratory in London. This monumental, cross-media textile artwork looks at transformations in science, where cells change resulting in cancer;
It explores transformations in art, where, with the use of materials, colour, pattern and meaning, material destined to be used as rags is changed into a beautiful artwork;
It looks to transform attitudes to cancer and chemotherapy drug treatment, offering a different experience to the viewer by illustrating the advances in scientific research work and remediation.

Transformations in Science and Art has been exhibited widely in the UK and abroad:
2005 - Atlanta USA; German Institute of Internal Medicine; Centre for Biomolecular Science, Nottingham,UK
2004: IPOS 04 Conference, Copenhagan
Drumcoon, Education Art Centre, Wigan
Greenbelt 03 Festival, Cheltenham
ICH Gallery, London, April 03



Articles written in the press about the work are in the Media section. Follow the media link below to read a very comprehensive article written for Oce Dialogue Magazine, by journalist Sarah Forth

The top left image shows the artists with Professor John Hartley at The ICH Gallery in London, where the work was exhibited as part of DNA 50 year celebrations.

The second image to the left shows two images of a Gene expression microarray, one made by a scientist, and the other is the artists' interpretation of it.

There is a 20 metre digital print of the work printed on vinyl which is available for touring shows.

A series of prints are available, you will see them online here in Art for Sale. Click the Art Cat Link or Art Link below.

Related Links:

Professor John Hartley Professor of Cancer Studies, Director Cancer Research UK Drug-DNA Interactions Research Group, at University College London. Artists worked with his group in an Art/Science collaboration

Greenbelt Arts Festival Greenbelt Arts Festival Transformations in Science and Art was exhibited at the Greenbelt Arts Festival - a Christian, Youth, Music, Political annual Summer Festival. It is held in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in the UK, attracting over 15,000 people over the weekend. In addition to the orginal 42 metre artwork, and prints being exhibited, a 20 metre digital print on vinyl allowed the work to be shown outside. Commenting on the work in exhibition Jane Ray, Producer, BBC Radio 4: "It has changed my associations with cancer from "grey, bleak, forbidding"to "light, hope, thoughfulness and colour."