Process of Acceleration

After researching Grenoble, I created a piece speaking about the technological and environmentally focused innovation hub that Grenoble has become. How the geographic setting of Grenoble, amid the mountains and rushing rivers, enabled early advances in hydropower, and how that energy source paved the way for much greater advancements in science and technology today. The figures become an allegory for human technological advancements throughout history, drawing water from neighboring rivers and harnessing energy for innovation. At the top of the wall sits an architectural drawing of a particle accelerator, the ESRF: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, which is in Grenoble. This stands for the current height of human technological advancement, where particles are accelerated at the speed of light to create powerful X-rays used to examine matter on a molecular level. A pursuit in understanding the world around us is crucial in creating change, but how this knowledge is used and what change is created is the constant friction of civilization, an aspect emulated within the expressions of the figures.

Hidden within the work, there is a tiny fragment from ESRF; the longest beam line from the drawing is the actual research station, ID21, of a scientist I met on my visit to the ESRF, Marine Cotte. Marine uses the powerful beams created from particle acceleration to study the degradation process of paint on artworks. She had a great idea to give me two yellow samples from her study of Van Gogh’s famous “Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers,” which were then embedded into the mural, furthering a connection to the site and the two-way road of artwork investigating scientific pursuits and scientific pursuits investigating art.

Latex + Aerosol on concrete

2019

Photo Credit: Artist and Andrea Berlese