Elemental Matters: Artists Imagine Chemistry

Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Until 16 December 2011.

Elements, the fundamentals of chemistry, have an almost mystical symbolism. The astounding concept that all matter and all life comes from the coupling of energy with this ordered list of atoms unifies an exhibition to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry 2011. Elemental Matters, which opened this month at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and runs throughout 2011, features the work of seven artists known for tackling chemistry themes.

Canadian artist David Clark jokes that he was inspired to create pieces based on the periodic table because the symbols for the consecutive elements chlorine, argon and potassium spell out his surname. His work focuses on the structure of the table rather than its chemical contents. In I Don't Think You Understand the Way I Feel About the Stove (2000; pictured) — borrowing from the words of Stove, a song by Canadian indie rock band Eric's Trip — he replaces the chemical symbols with 118 identical rusty electric-stove heating elements. “By collecting objects that are all the same, it emphasizes the table's meaning as a sign,” he says.

Stove elements replace chemical ones in David Clark's artwork inspired by the periodic table. Credit: C. ERB/CONRAD ERB PHOTOGRAPHY

In Braille (2000), Clark reorganizes the elemental symbols into another familiar chart, the eye test. The letters, also translated into Braille, shrink in size with each descending line. “The Braille fades into nothingness,” says Clark. “They are like atoms, moving beyond our touch.” His intent is to remind us that the shape of the periodic table, even without the information it usually holds, has become iconic.

A series of 58 flasks holds a sample of an element scaled to the amount found in a person weighing 45 kilograms.

The chemical ingredients of the human body are decoupled in New York artist Dove Bradshaw's Self Interest (1999), a series of 58 flasks mounted in a glass case. Each container holds a sample of an element scaled to the amount found in a person weighing 45 kilograms. The flasks containing trace elements such as yttrium, thorium or beryllium are only as big as three pinheads, notes Bradshaw. The piece explores whether our existence can be stripped down to material constituents.

The elemental forces of nature, and the chemical changes tied up with those forces, also find a place in this exhibition. In Bradshaw's Waterstone (1996), for example, a funnel drips water at a steady rate onto a limestone block. Running since the mid-1990s, the trickle of seven drops every minute has eroded a small dent in the carbonate.

The displayed works include more literal takes on the elements — in sound as well as vision. Elements in Descending Order of Creation from Collapsing Stars, by Oregon-based composer Susan Alexjander, transposes the vibrational frequencies of atoms down by 14 octaves into the audible range. Her musical 'scale' runs from hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen to silicon, phosphorus and sulphur.

The show also includes collaborative works, such as a giant printed collage of the 118 elements of the periodic table interpreted by 97 artists, with each print in its conventional place.

Chemists usually think of the periodic table in abstract terms, as a reference book or an aid to their research. These artworks remind us of the mystery that the elements can also evoke.