Forms Most Beautiful

Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery 21 Jan - 21 April 2012 Curated by Jan Freedman A collaboration with: Plymouth University; Marine Biological Association; Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science; National Marine Aquarium; Plymouth Marine Laboratory; Plymouth Marine Sciences Partnership; The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons; The Museums Association; Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. In a collaboration with the curatorial team at Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, recent work can be currently seen in the exhibition 'Forms Most Beautiful'. Situated within a natural historical context the works project beyond notions of biology, exploring the co-existence of the alien and the familiar. Juxtaposed between the illustrative works of C19th biologist Ernst Haeckel and marine specimens, a trajectory is drawn from empirical representation towards idealised reification. A process that looks at the relationship between paradigm and observed experience materialised in ceramic pieces of a fantastically intricate architecture. The tension between the durability of fired clay and fragility of construction can be looked on as a metaphor for life. Formal elements can be traced back to Goethe's seminal archetypal modellling, Urpflanze. The works foster a spectrum of interpretation that constantly repositions them in relation to their surroundings.