INVISIBLE BEAUTY
There seems to be a trend bubbling up—macroviews of microorganisms as art and design subjects. Beyond paintings, sculptures, and photographs bringing their magnificent colors, forms, and textures to our attention, designers are glorifying them.
Pamela Sunday has created a series of gorgeous handmade porcelain tiles, vessels, and objects inspired by what we can somehow feel but cannot see, ranging from the biological, such as spores and microbes, to the psychological, such as Rorschach blots.
Astropuff, by Adam Jackson Pollack (LED Lighting, 2012)
Even though some are not explicitly naming microorganisms as models, we are finding a new crop of beautiful designs that are evocative. While Astropuff calls attention to its space-age materials, this brilliant LED chandelier design, by Adam Jackson Pollack, looks like an artist rendition of a trio of hemoglobin.
Fashion designer/scientist team, Helen Storey, MBE, and Tony Ryan, OBE, respectively, have been collaborating on a project focused on air. The line, Catalytic Clothing, is not only beautiful to see, wearing it makes each piece more beautiful because it purifies the air around you. The surfaces of each dress or pair of pants act as catalytic converters. By incorporating photocatalysts into the fibers of the fabrics, these garments remove pollutants from the air.
The video on their website is a beautiful art film, showing off the exquisitely conceived gown choreographed against a backdrop of macro-images of the micro-world.
