art,sciencelove.

Marta Pinilla

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Mendeleev (creator of the periodic table) once said, “Everything in life is art, every-thing in life is science, everything in life is love”. These words have become a leitmotif of my life and work. I studied biology before fine arts, so all of my work is one part art, one part science and one part love.

I approach science from art in two ways: firstly, using science as a technique and, secondly, using science as an inspiration.

In the first case – science as a technique – I intend to bring to art techniques that are initially far from the artistic practice such as laboratory equipment, microscopic images, field notebooks and cell cultures. With these new resources, I develop new artistic material with a completely different meaning that is often very personal.

In the second case – using science as subject matter – I look for inspiration in science for my work. The most recurring subject matter are the nervous system, the universe (and the relationship between the two), the diversity of flora and fauna, and water and conserving the environment. All of these subjects are dealt with based on previous research and reflexion; trying to help spectators find new ways of seeing reality.

As science (and specifically biology) is an inseparable part of my personality, it is al-ways approached from reflection and my heart. I cannot separate my knowledge and feelings regarding some subjects I’m passionate about and that are part of my way of understanding art, the world and the universe.

Statement

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Index1. Laboratory art.

New planets QR One thousand petri’s capsules. Serie I. Serie II. Serie III Archive.

2. Nerve impulse and art

Connective Synapses

3. Universe

Universia Quasar Galaxy Black hole Mock-up Weave

4. Enviorenmental art

Portable stream Monteagudo 2 Monteagudo 7 Portable iceberg En-RED-ados (Tangled)

5. Art from the heart

Emakis of a Life. Iceland Japan Six Square Metres. (From M40 project) From A to B (From M40 project)

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Laboratory art

New planets was my first attempt to approach science from art. By using bacterial cultures growing in different mediums, new shapes started forming that reminded me of strange and distant planets. These shapes were reinforced by the interaction between the bacteria with the culture medium, since their characteristics (texture, surface or colour) changed as they grew. When, due to the growth of the bacteria, I would find a shape to my liking the dishes were photographed to create the illusion of being new planets in the universe.

NEW PLANETS. 2012. Potography. Petri Capsules, Cell culture. (10 pictures)

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QR codes have invaded our daily lives, although they were created in Japanese labo-ratories. We can find them everywhere. However they have created a division in so-ciety – they can only be used by those people who have a mobile phone and know how to use them. In this case, I intended to create a book that can only be read with a mobile. Without one, only the illustrations can be looked at, which are based on digital networks. Thanks to the mobile, we can access pages that have the narrative of the book, songs and videos created specifically for this book. Photoengraving was used to make this book and it has been stored in a methacrylate box.

QR. 2013. Digital drawing. Photoengraving, paper, methacrylate box

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1000 Petri Dishes (in progress) is a project that is intended to give a new artistic di-mension to laboratory equipment. To do so, I use Petri dishes and I keep them on file. This project attempts to assess and study the artistic creation process. It has differ-ent series, each one has been done after a small research project. On the other hand, all of the dishes are being photographed and filed to create a large archive of them. It is intended to pay tribute to all scientists who, for years, had to use analogous me-diums and filed by hand (I personally have an archive of fossils done this way). Thus, all of the photographs were taken with a Polaroid camera and each dish has a file where its fundamental characteristics can be found. These files are kept in a wood filing cabinet that was retrieved from the trash left from the eviction of a laboratory.

Series I (15 dishes). It was done after analysing the main characteristics of the dishes: transparency, receiver capability, diaphanous, etc. In this project intended to inhibit the receiver capacity and transparency of the dishes. Thus, they are no longer useful material and have become artistic material. To achieve this effect, different material were used such as wax, thread and pigments.

Series II (17 dishes). This series has sought the creation of new art objects from the destruction of mundane objects like pencils, rubbers, documents or USB memories. The fragments and debris obtained from the ritual destruction were joined by wax, creating new structures and imitating a real culture medium.

Series III (5 dishes). After reading various works by Ramón y Cajal (winner of the Nobel prize for his research in neuroscience), this series intends to pay him tribute through drawings. Neurons were drawn in Petri dishes and were backlit, therefore representing the nerve impulses that work by means of electric currents. This series is tied to the Electrical Synapses project to which it was a sequel.

ONE THOUSAND PETRI’S CAPSULES 2014. Petri Capsules, Mix media

One thousand petri’s capsules. Serie I. 2014. Petri Capsules, Wax, Mix media

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One thousand petri’s capsules. Serie I. 2014. Petri Capsules, Wax, Mix media

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One thousand petri’s capsules. Serie III. 2014. Petri Capsules, paper, drawing, light

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One thousand petri’s capsules. Archive. 2014. Polaroid pictures, index cards.

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Nerve impulse and art

Brain function is something that has always strongly called my attention. The fact that small electrical impulses give us the perception of everything that is real is something that continues to surprise me today. In Connective Synapses I have tried to represent this relationship. To do so, I used wires to represent the neural networks and spheres made of thread that represent nerve centres. Different lights were used to represent this nerve impulse, each one representing a synapsis.

This project was accompanied by a music track created specifically for it that was based on alpha and beta waves emitted by the brain which plunged the spectator (after contemplating the work) into a state of trance.

This project was selected for the “Arte imposible de etiquetar” exhibition.

CONNECTIVE SYNAPSES 2012. Steel, thread, light.

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Universe

This project came around while preparing for White Hole. While studying the universe, I drew the most important structures that I came across (quasars, galaxies, nebula, dark matter, etc.) in black and white ink on black paper. I did a total of 20 drawings. Later, these drawings formed part of the projection found in “White Hole”.

UNIVERSIA, 20 DRAWINGS OF THE COSMOS.

Quasar.. Black Paper, orange and white ink. 2013. A3 drawing

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Galaxy. Black Paper, orange and white ink. 2013. A3 drawing

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White Hole was a large-scale project that never materialised due to a lack of budget. In this project I sought the representation of a white hole (the opposite of a black hole) which was already foreseen by Einstein. These are places where matter and energy are emitted into the universe, and they could be connected with a black hole by a wormhole. It is believed that the Big Bang could be a white hole.

To represent a white hole, studies were undergone and models were prepared to manufacture a large dome made of washi and copper that emitted solid light with an audiovisual projection through a hole in its top. This dome would have been located in a large black room so that we would lose the perception of what is up and down.

WHITE HOLE. 2013.

White hole Mock-up.2013. Paper, copper, light, mock-up for an installation

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White hole.Weave 2013. Paper, copper, light, mock-up for an installation

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Enviorenmental art

I was born in a town where agriculture was essential. Everything was covered with trees and its plains were famous for the quantity of fruit and vegetables they could produce. Twenty years ago, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidised the uprooting of the trees to plant sunflowers and corn. As the trees started to disappear, the rain disappeared too. The area turned into a desert, forcing people to emigrate. When I came to Madrid, I realized that no one was aware of the water problem and I decided to do a series of awareness-raising initiatives.

One of them was to create portable streams, embroidering seven layers of thread which imitate water on several notebooks. These notebooks were placed where steams would usually run but now there is only barren wasteland.

These notebooks were photographed and the photos were part of the www.water-bodies.org foundation.

PORTABLE STREAM 2013. Sketchbook, thread, photography.

Portable stream. Monteagudo 2. 2013. Sketchbook, thread, photography.

Portable stream. Monteagudo 7. 2013. Sketchbook, thread, photography.

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Following the idea of Portable Stream, a portable paper iceberg was created. This iceberg has been kept in a box since glaciers and icebergs are becoming more and more extinct and must be protected. To observe the glacier, we are going to have to use a peephole precisely to strengthen the concept of a prized material. The glacier has been placed where glaciers usually exist.

This project formed part of the Tàr collective (tear in Icelandic) which wants to raise awareness on the effects of climate change and retreating glaciers.

PORTABLE ICEBERG 2014. Paper, steel, ligth.

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After reading an article from the WWF magazine, the effect of drifting nets on the sea had a real impact on me. Here thousands of fish, dolphins, tortoises, etc. are trapped suffering slow deaths. These nets rarely reach beaches and therefore we are not re-ally aware of them. What would happen if these nets were found where we spend our free time? This was the starting point of this project, in which a fisheye lens and underwater cameras were used to photograph pools and aquatic centres. Later the photos were sewn together by hand like these nets.

En-RED-ados (TANGLED). 2014. Photography, thread. (5 pictures).

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Art from the heartThese projects aim to represent my deepest feelings. As a scientist I am used to tak-ing note of everything that happens in my life – thoughts, emotions, trips, films, etc. To do so, I keep field notebooks, which represent these moments through very differ-ent techniques (from collages, to embroidery or drawings). As it is an ongoing large-scale work, from among all of the notebooks, I’ve selected the following:

It is a series of projects that reflect all of the trips I have taken – Spain, Japan, Iceland, the UK, New York, etc. All of them are summarised in notebooks that I fill out in pen and ink, while I move from one place to another and they remind me of everything I have done. It is a life project, so it is actually in progress.

Emakis of a Life. 2012. Paper, ink.

Iceland 2012. Paper, ink.

Japan. 2011/2012. Paper, ink.

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I live in a tiny house in the metropolitan area of Madrid. Using the Japanese technique of papercutting Kiri-e, I have cut out the map of the city I live in. I’ve also included a poem that expresses the relationship between these streets and myself. It is a very personal project that involves many parts of my personality.

This notebook was selected for the “masquelibros” fair.

Six Square Metres. (From M40 project) 2013. Paper, ink.

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When you go somewhere, your body takes one path which corresponds to geo-graphic coordinates and your mind takes hundreds of paths because as you think it goes and comes many times. In this project I have sought to represent all of the paths my body and mind have followed to go from my house to the house of one of my best friends. Each one of these friends is represented in one of the sides of the notebook. Like Six Square Metres, this exercise has a printed poem that expresses the emotions I had during the trip.

This notebook was chosen for the “Masquelibros” fair.

From A to B (From M40 project) 2013. Paper, ink.

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Personal dataMarta Pinilla Martinez (1980, Soria, Spain)

EDUCATION

Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Bachelor of Fine Arts, 2014Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Bachelor of Science Biology, 2003

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS

2014 En-RED-ados (tangled). Espacio Holmes. Madrid.2013 Emakis de una vida Monteagudo de las Vicarias, Soria.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2014 Rosa. Collective ‘Black is not a colour’. Rivas Association House, Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Madrid Azul. Collective ‘Black is not a colour’. Alfonso XII Cultural Centre. El Pardo, Madrid

2013 Verde. Collective ‘Black is not a colour’. La Trola Bar, Madrid Amarillo. Collective ‘Black is not a colour’. Margarita Menken Cultural Centre, Coslada, Madrid H2O Emergencias. Fine Arts University, Madrid. Curator: Ester Movinas Masquelibros. COAM, Madrid. Curators: Carmen Hidalgo de Cisneros Wilkins, Monica Oliva, Marta Aguilar Libroscopia. Night books. HUB Madrid, Madrid. Curator: Carmen Hidalgo de Cisneros Wilkins Azul. Collective ‘Black is not a colour’. Lucero Cultural Centre, Madrid Dibujo experimental + Movimiento. Fine Arts University, Madrid. Curator: Carmen Hidalgo de Cisneros I National Award ‘Arte imposible de etiquetar’. Fine Arts Universities of Madrid, Santander, Bilbao, Barcelona Arte intruso. Amarillo. Collective ‘Black is not a colour’. La Cabrera, Madrid

2012 El libro como espacio de creación. Fine Arts University, Madrid 2011 El negro no es un color. La Inquilina Cafe, Madrid 2010 El negro no es un color. Macondo Cafe, Salamanca

AWARDS AND GRANTS

2013 Finalist for the digital platform Water-Bodies. Art + Sci. Center Lab. UCLA. California, EEUU H2O Emergencias. Fine Arts University, Madrid. Curator: Ester Movinas Finalist for the exhibition Masquelibros. COAM, Madrid Finalist on the I NAtional Award Arte imposible de etiquetar. Fine Arts Univerisites of Madrid, Santander, Bilbao, Barcelona

2002 Special Mention on the XVI Essay Award Enrique Tierno Galván

2001 Special Mention on the Award Ciudad de Getafe

CONTACT

http://mpinilla-bioandart.blogspot.com.es/email: biomartix@gmail.comTlf. +34645523445