Japanese artist, Macoto Murayama cultivates ‘inorganic flora’. His extraordinary images are created after minutely dissecting real flowers and studying them under a microscope. His drawings are then modelled in 3D imaging software then rendered into 2D compositions on Photoshop before being printed in large scale. His interesting work is coming to University of Dundee’s Lamb Gallery with a preview of the exhibition on Friday 13th May from 5 – 6.30pm which then runs from 14th May – 20th August.
“Here it is, the Flower of Totalitarian Scientific Consciousness: properly fixed, totally measured, strictly nominated and distinctly shown. It is not only an image of a plant, but a representation of the intellect’s power and its elaborate tools for scrutinising nature. The transparency of this work refers not only to the lucid petals of a flower, but to the ambitious, romantic and utopian struggle of science to see and present the world as a transparent (completely seen, entirely grasped) object. Paradoxically, this scientific challenge to measure the Universe might eventually become one of the sources where the art of Murayama draws its strength of fantasy and odour of romanticism, becoming a symbiosis of Botanical Art and Technology.” – Frantic Gallery, Tokyo
Murayama was born in Kanagawa in 1984 and studied Spatial Design at Miyagi University before going on to further research in the Media Expression department of the Institute of Advanced Media Art and Sciences in Ogaki. The influence of D’Arcy Thompson’s work on mathematical biology and morphogenesis is clear in his exquisitely beautiful images.
The exhibition then runs 14 May – 20 August and will be open Mon-Fri 09.30-19.00, Sat 13.00-17.00.
This is the first public exhibition in Scotland of Murayama’s work and Lamb Gallery are delighted to bring the artist to Dundee to give a talk about his work, thanks to funding from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. This will take place on Tuesday 24 May at 6pm in the D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre, Tower Building. All welcome – no need to book.