Credit: LeeAnn Gauthier
German-born artist Julian Voss-Andreae sculpts the molecules of life and the universe, rendering the invisible visible. His background in quantum physics imbues him with the necessary faculty to enlarge the machinery under the surface of organisms. His sculpture, "Unraveling Collagen" (2005), was installed on May 10th in San Francisco's Orange Memorial Sculpture Park and will remain on view until 2008. The stainless steel structure stands 11 feet tall and examines the architecture of collagen, the human body's most abundant protein, which gives shape to our bones, teeth, tendons and cartilage. Seed spoke with Voss-Andreae while he was still at work on the piece, which he says took an unexpected turn when he chose to veer away from collagen's exact molecular structure and "follow his artistic intuition."
What appeals to you about making protein sculptures?
At first, I was just fascinated by the structures themselves. As a physicist, you see only very small molecules, like H2O, and the connection between them and our big bodies isn't that obvious. Somewhere in between the two, the whole aesthetic changes. You go from the mathematical to the organic. Proteins are right in between these two worlds: the non-living and the living.
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And as a sculptor, I like to think about how three-dimensionality comes about. How is it possible that starting with one-dimensional DNA, we end up with a three-dimensional body? It was kind of a revelation to understand that proteins are the key to that. They are one-dimensional chains of amino acids that wind into space in very specific conformations.
You just completed a sculpture of collagen. Why did you choose it?
I need to like the molecule from a visual point of view. Collagen is an incredible structure--three helical strands curled into a superhelix, like a rope. And it has to have some conceptual appeal. Collagen is conceptually intriguing because it's the most abundant protein in our bodies. It is fundamental.
What makes your sculptures more than just molecular models?
First of all, I use the technique of mitered cuts as an analogy to protein folding--an enormous abstraction from reality. Secondly, take any realist painting. Nobody would say that there isn't a distinction between a photo and this kind of art, even though it is a very faithful mapping of reality.... I have an art feeling when I make these things, and that's what counts the most.
"Unraveling Collagen" (2005) Credit: Julian Voss-Andreae
Your background is in quantum physics, the discipline that spawned Richard Feynman's famous diagrams. They have an inherent beauty, but I don't think I've ever heard them described as art.
I don't know whether Feynman thought they were art. I know he painted them on his van.
Really?
Yeah. He was driving through the Midwest in his van, and he had some diagrams on it. He pulled into a gas station in the middle of nowhere and the attendant said, "Those are Feynman Diagrams."
So, do you think the creative process is similar for artists and for scientists like Feynman?
I don't really know. I think it's a very different type of creativity. In science, you typically develop stuff as part of a team. It is mostly about finding solutions to well-defined problems on the way to a broader understanding. As an artist, you do everything by yourself, and it's about understanding things on a sensual level.
The physicist and historian Arthur I. Miller once said, "Artists and scientists alike seek a visual representation of worlds both visible and invisible." Do you agree?
That sounds good, but the worlds are totally different. One world is subjective, and the other is objective. Einstein put it one way--let me just look it up--