A Ceramics and Photographic Exhibition

Updated 9 November 2023

As with most writing, read again after some time, this page needed some revision. I have removed some repetitions and added a new image. I hope the text reads better.

The Dinner Party - Ceramics by Aimée Mcleod

This exhibition was held from 30 May to 5 June 2016 at the Thistle Hall (corner Cuba St and Karo Drive)

"the dinner party" - Ceramics by Aimée McLeod "Too many people rush around with their take-away coffees in paper cups and take-away meals in plastic containers eaten in front of TV. My exhibition focuses on tableware, the joy of sitting down to a meal on hand made dishes or simply cradling a mug in your hand.

"urban trees" - Photographs by Roland Idaczyk These trees seem almost assimilated by their surroundings. Mostly taken in the winter, these images reflect on the fate of vegetation in the city.

"electron micrographs" - Photos by John Patterson Taken through the 30-year-old JEOL 733 microprobe at Victoria University, these are fascinating images (micrographs) of highly magnified organisms, and other samples. Some of the micrographs have been interpreted as landscapes by Czech artist Linda Ćihařová.

Introduction

I was asked by my sister-in-law, Aimée Mcleod, to display some of my old electron micrographs at an exhibition of her ceramic tableware.

The micrographic part of the display was also motivated by an email from an artist from Prague in the Czech Republic. In October 2015 I was contacted by Linda Čihařová. Linda used some of the micrographs from my web page to produce some large oil paintings, as inhabited landscapes.

Linda wanted to display some micrographs found on my web site, along with her oil paintings derived from them, at a major art exhibition in Prague. The paintings interpreted the micrographs as unusual inhabited landscapes.

Here I have done the reverse. I displayed electron micrographs alongside colour prints of the corresponding paintings. Linda sent them to me as digital files. I titled the display Some Unusual Electron Micrographs - Comparisons and Interpretations.

I tried to credit everyone involved in the sample preparation and the photography. Most of the micrographs were not exactly geological. They were recorded because they looked unusual.

The micrographs are not for sale. They were simply there to provide an interesting background to a ceramic tableware display.

Some Unusual Electron Micrographs - Comparisons and Interpretations

The JEOL 733 Electron Microprobe was purchased by Victoria University in 1979. It ran continuously for 30 years until it was replaced with a new instrument housed in the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences in 2009. I was responsible for its operation from 1996 to 2008.

I taught many graduate students to operate this microscope and I often took micrographs for them as there were many variables to adjust for a good result. Note that the main function of this microscope was to precisely analyse just a tiny area at the centre of the image.

“The series of paintings, which are inspired by images from the electron microscope has origin in a question if there exists a landscape in this micro scale. How does it look like and who lives there?”

The images below show an oil painting "Poplars on the Ganymedes" by Linda Čihařová and the corresponding electron microprobe image.

The electron microprobe image shows the fractured edge of a microscope slide which was heated with some sodium chloride covering one surface. The sodium chloride diffused into the glass altering its properties. This in turn changed the way in which the glass fractured. In the following cross-section view the sodium chloride diffused in from below.

I used an Epson C83 printer using Epson DURAbrite inks and Epson Matte Heavyweight paper for all the prints. The images were only minimally adjusted before printing. The monochrome images used the black pigment ink only.

The photos at right were taken at the exhibition. Click on them to see a larger version.