Physicist
Arie van 't Riet specializes in radiation physics, and very low energy x-rays in particular. He began making artwork employing x-ray nature photographs, where radiography intersects fine art. His colourized x-ray photos of bioramas are a sort of see-through
wunderkammer. He creates entire scenes in x-ray form. It makes me think of how the natural world might look if my eyes could see in x-ray wavelengths (or those back-of-the-comic-book x-ray specs really worked).
As a printmaker, I also appreciate how he's worked with Hans van 't Riet to produce Toboyo prints, or photo-polymer etchings, using UV light to transfer the x-rays to a plate which was inked and hand-printed. There's something poetic about using one non-visible wavelength to photograph right through lifeforms and show their structure, and then use another non-visible wavelength to bite an etching plate and print onto paper- combining the high tech with the centuries-old artistic medium.
Transparent flowers, revealing their skeletal structures, are also the subject of architecture-student-turned-artist
Macoto Murayama's work, but his is a very different medium. He uses computer graphics, 3dsMAX software usually employed in architecture (or animation), to model and then Photoshop and Illustrator depict the anatomy of flowers. It's like a specialized form of scientific illustration, as he bases his images on his own careful dissection of flowers
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| Chrysanthemum, Macoto Murayama |
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| Rose, Macoto Murayama |
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| Yoshino cherry, Macoto Murayama |
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| Chrysanthemum, Macoto Murayama |
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| Satsuki azalea, Macoto Murayama |
(via
the scientist)
Compelling images - very lovely indeed.
ReplyDeleteps ..... but Helianthus are sunflowers, not poppies!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much! I thought that sounded weird. He must have mislabelled the image. I think I'll just remove the title, since it must be in error.
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