Oriel Un/Gallery One
Ian Andrews: The Sketchbook and the Collider
25/07/25 – 06/09/2025
The sketchbook and the Collider is an on-going collaboration between artist Ian Andrews and award-winning particle physicist Professor Kostas Nikolopoulos seeking equivalents between the language of drawing and the interaction of the fundamental particles. It has broadened to include work with Professor Clare Anderson responding to her investigations into disruptions of neuronal networks in the brain.
Artistic research connecting the two suggests a “rhythmical pattern or choreography” underlying reality and unfolding at various scales from the cosmological to the subatomic.
“Making drawings in caves equivalent to my physicist’s subterranean detection experiments where thickness of rock filters cosmic rays, connected with early sleep deprivation studies conducted underground depriving participants of all awareness of time: I was intrigued by the contrast between the subatomic particles darting close to the speed of light and the rock structures accumulating over vast periods of geological time.
My drawn rhythms locate the human experience between these two extreme timescales embedding it within the body: the firing of neuronal activity, the rhythm of heartbeats, the flow of blood through the veins.
I experiment with and re-imagine relationships between the basic elements of drawing and the rhythms operating at these various scales including the linear networks of electrical activity firing between neurons, the “lines of code” contained within stalactite and stalagmite rock formations, and the production of sub-atomic particles through excitations of their quantum fields.
The idea of rhythm as an “ordering pattern,” independent elements acquiring meaning through a network of structured links created by collage, the abrupt, visceral, clash of different elements coming together is a vital technique referencing the nature of reality at the subatomic level, referred to by one physicist as “the violent frothing of quantum foam” and the interacting vibrating particle fields.
Exploring this rhythmical pattern, I reach out via engagement workshops to investigate if this rhythm can benefit participants within the context of practical mark-making workshops. I combine their responses with my own work and animate the drawings through moving image pieces integrated with drawings on sculptural forms that must be negotiated, embedding movement, collaboration and participation in response to this “universal rhythmical unit”
During a residency at the University of Birmingham working with award winning particle physicist professor Kostas Nikolopoulos in 2017 Ian made transformational changes to his practice creating the project The sketchbook and the Collider which seeks equivalents between the interaction of fundamental particles and the language of drawing.
He has since delivered 16 exhibition/events and 40 workshops, including a solo exhibition at the Forum Exposition Bonlieu, Annecy, France in October 2022, following which Ian was invited to talk at the International Particle Physics Outreach Group 25th annual conference at CERN in Geneva.
In 2023/24, Ian received a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in the USA and was also awarded a John Feeney Charitable Trust Fellowship from the city of Birmingham.
He recently returned to the University of Birmingham as artist in residence with the Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine working with Professor Clare Anderson investigating the disruption of Circadian Rhythms and its effect on neuronal networks in the brain.
This exhibition will be accompanied by an open access drawing studio in Gallery Two which will host a series of workshops and activities exploring different approaches to drawing throughout the duration of the exhibition.
https://www.thesketchbookandthecollider.com/
Preview: Friday 25th July, 7pm
Exhibition continues until Saturday 6th September
Gallery open Wednesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm
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