Artist Tutorials

Structural Affinities

‘Sponges are the only animals that if broken down to the level of their cells can reassemble themselves into an entirely different configuration. I see the potential to project subject or object-like qualities into these sponges. Likewise, artists often breathe life into inanimate materials and transform them into something they evoke or resemble structurally.’ — Madeleine Kelly

1. Gather natural, three-dimensional forms from around your school or local area. These might include flowers, seed pods or shells.

2. Download and print the isometric grid (preferably onto cartridge paper). Note that the grid will appear faint.

3. Select one of the natural items that you have collected and draw its shape into the gridded paper using lead pencil.

4. Does the form remind you of something else? Add to your drawing to transform the shape into the resemblance.

Elective Affinities

‘This work, Elective affinities, includes images from art history that mirror the act of creation. The laboratory vessels make the relationship between matter, meaning and painting explicit. Some are monochromes, others contain techniques of dripping, pouring or even blowing. They embody gesture and the passage of time across their glass. Together, they point to the fact that paintings aren’t hermetically sealed objects, they are part of a network and their agency is distorted and magnified by their visibility.’ — Madeleine Kelly

1. Download and print an image of one of the vessels displayed in Elective affinities.

2. Write words and draw images around the vessel that you think relate to processes, materials or outcomes that art and science have in common. You might like to use some of the words listed below:

• add
• align
• appear
• attract
• bend
• bind
• combine
• disappear
• disperse
• embody
• erase
• extract
• find
• flee
• fuse
• loose
• mark
• relate
• release
• repel
• resolve
• separate
• scatter
• scrap
• surface
• seek