Judith Alder

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Linear expression 2022

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Judith's practice spans a range of media and processes informed by her interest in science and nature.  She is particularly interested in how things grow, change and evolve and how science, nature and technology collide in this time of rapid change.  In her research she looks back at the past, trying to learn more about the world through history, art, science and nature, in the hope that she might better understand the present and be able to think about alternative futures.  Her creative process mirrors processes of evolution, with work being made and re-made sometimes over years, as it is revisited, adapted or reconfigured to reflect new knowledge, understanding and ideas.

 

Judith's recent drawing work has the title, A Very Dangerous Idea, based on a term used about Darwin's Theory of Evolution. The work is itself part of a process of evolution and transformation, with drawings using fine white ink pens made onto laser prints (more than 60 of them in total) which were originally produced to make a wall-sized drawing installation during my Once In A Universe project in 2019.  The prints are made from greatly enlarged sections of photographs which documented an early experimental drawing process of hers called the Creation Drawings, in which Judith used inks and household chemicals to make drawings while thinking about origin of life theories.  The drawing experiments were inspired by the Miller Urey Experiment of 1952 in which scientists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey attempted to show that with just water, ammonia, hydrogen and methane – and electric sparks to mimic lightning – several of the protein precursors necessary for the development of life on Earth could be formed.

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