Annie Cattrell’s Blog
Annie Cattrell is lead artist for UCL’s ION-DRI programme – the project to build a new world class centre for neuroscience at Grays Inn Road, London. Her works-in-progress are on display in a new exhibition, Everything is Connected, running at the Crafts Council, London N1, 22 May – 3rd June.
I was appointed as lead artist for UCL’s public art programme, part of a project to build a new centre for neuroscience, just before Covid 19 struck in March 2020.
Since then, I have developed three public artworks for the new centre on Grays Inn Road, working closely with a steering group made up of academics and staff from across the project and chaired by UCL Director of Public Art, Sam Wilkinson.
This new world-leading centre has been designed by architects Hawkins\Brown and aims to foster the connectivity and dialogue between clinical and research staff, who will be working side by side, for the first time, in the same building. This proximity will hopefully help to propel and consolidate the challenges of finding new ways to prevent and treat complex neurodegenerative diseases.
Everything is Connected, a large-scale sculptural relief that will be positioned (once the building is complete), on a 90-degree corner of the new building and will be clearly visible from Grays Inn Road and other on-site vantage points. The work will sit proud of the skin of the building, appearing to hover and be full of energy.
The formation of Everything is Connected is drawn from the concept of this ambitious development as a locus, designed to house and support the advancement of neurological research and treatments.
I went into laboratories and the Queen Square Brain Bank and observed physical dendritic pathways within the brain’s neurological composition through miniscule stained microscopic images.
Additionally, I spent time at Queen Square Library and saw rare books including ink drawings by the Spanish neuro-anatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal.
Secondly, I viewed satellite images of river tributaries on the surface of the earth and underground drawings of the River Fleet, which runs underneath the centre at 256 Grays Inn Road.
These differing scales, yet similar configurations appear to echo the magnitude of the medical challenges that will happen within the centre.
With this in mind, I chose to combine contrasting perspectives: the micro neurological, with the macro vantage point of the moon’s surface. This lunar volcanic texture provided an undulating topology of distant, yet familiar, terrain. The whole sculpture is gilded to highlight this iconic crater complexity, which will maximise the absorption and reflection of ambient sunlight during the day and will be spot-lit at night..
Mirror is a sculptural bass relief (rilievo stiacciato) and will be installed on the listed archway ceiling above the pedestrian entrance to the new centre.
This threshold signifies an architectural chamber between the public road and the inside building complex, leading to the inner garden space.
The concept of Mirror is to embody and reinforce ideas of care, skill and interconnectedness. Everyday mirrors are designed to reflect what is around them and they duplicate in reverse. It is this re-examination of what is familiar ‘in reverse’ that will be at the centre of Mirror’s conceptual and physical making.
The overall form is derived from images I captured of the transient behaviour of cloud formations when flying, and of observing brain dissections.
A brain has two cerebral hemispheres and Mirror highlights this duality and the comparison between the transitory nature of thought, and the ever-changing properties of cloud formations. It acts as a metaphor for how collaboration can transform, complete and make a series of parts make a whole. Like a Rorshach ink block print in configuration, the carved cloud layout will physically part in the middle, las if an imagined revelatory ‘parting of the waves’
Wise Words is a series of messages to future staff that will work in these new spaces. In response to a questionnaire that I circulated to researchers, clinicians and staff about their thoughts, hopes and expectations for the new centre. These will be reflected in a series of quotes that will be positioned on the walls around the staff areas and aims to convey these hopes and aspirations well into the future.
Annie Cattrell is a visual artist who is often informed by working with specialists in science. This cross-disciplinary approach has enabled her to learn about cutting edge research and in-depth information in these fields. She is particularly interested in the connections and distinctions that can be drawn between where art and science meet.
Everything is Connected, is at the Crafts Council, London, N1, 22 May-3 June
