Floribunda: Judy Morris & Ian Gibbins

flori_radiance_1

Drawings by Judy Morris, poems and sound installation by Ian Gibbins, exhibited at the Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, 13th June – 26 July, 2015.

Floribunda was originally conceived by Judy as a collection of drawings inspired by native and introduced plants growing in the bush, urban gardens and nurseries in the greater Adelaide region. Judy is particularly attracted to the more unusual shapes and textures of these plants, carefully observing and documenting their emergence and eventual turnover. She uses a slow process of detailed mark making with graphite and coloured pencil on paper to interpret the beauty of the overall form and colour as well as the detailed structure of the plants. She seeks to discover and represent the universal appeal of these amazing works of nature in her larger than life-size drawings, encouraging others to look more closely and make discoveries of their own.

The poems in Floribunda were written by Ian in response to Judy’s drawings, their titles, and meanings hidden within the formal Latin titles of the plants: gardneri, after the curator of the Western Australian Herbarium, Charles Austin Gardner; the “bearded” Isopogon; stoechas, referring to the Mediterranean islands where Jason and … Click here for more.

The Microscope Project

The Microscope Project

Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery, 26th July – 21st September, 2014.

Ian Gibbins, Catherine TrumanDeb JonesAngela Valamanesh and Nicholas Folland, curated by Fiona Salmon and Madeline Reece.

For much of his time at Flinders University, Ian managed the main microscopy research facility, contained divers kinds of sophisticated microscopes. In 2012, several old scanning electron microscopes, some fluorescence microscopes, and other ancillary equipment were decommissioned. Once state-of-the-art, they were now largely dysfunctional and no longer practically operational. However, they had long histories of contributing to internationally-recognised research into the nervous and cardiovascular systems, the gut, and much more.

… and then there was all their supporting documentation: schematic diagrams and plans, manuals, advertising brochures, catalogues, certifications of performance, packing lists.

Although much of the equipment had been disassembled down to their component parts, it was all to valuable to be dumped for scrap. There were many more stories to be told about these instruments. Perhaps we could re-imagine their pasts, their futures, the people who had made them, maintained them, used them…

So, over more than 12 months, the artists collaborated with these elements in the unique shared environment … Click here for more.

not absolute

Not Absolute was a collaborative exhibition at the Flinders University City Gallery, 24th July – 27th September, 2009, featuring work by Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Judy Morris, Gabriella Besetto, Vicki Clifton and Rachel Burgess, curated by Janice Lally.

The following is from the curator’s comments in the exhibition catalogue:

NOT ABSOLUTE has been a collaboration over some time by artists and scientists … to discover and communicate new understandings of the human body derived from interconnections between science and art practices. The visual, aural and tactile aspects of the works offer others opportunities to gain fresh insights into notions of what the body is and how it might be understood by the individual. The nature of the creative processes of artists and scientists is also part of the investigation.

“Knowledge about the body, in the abstract and from a personal viewpoint, is a concern for us all. The daily experience of living within and communicating about our bodies is central to all of us. How we wash and dress ourselves, how we move, or see, or hear, how we communicate, our … Click here for more.

projects

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Collaboration is absolutely the norm in modern science, so perhaps it is not surprising that much of Ian’s creative work involves collaborative projects with other artists. Click here to see a full list of Ian’s collaborations.

Follow the links or the menu items to see some of them:

The Taken Path: a durational project with Catherine Truman

The Microscope Project with Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh & Nicholas Folland

Floribunda with Judy Morris

not absolute with Catherine Truman, Judy Morris, Vicki Clifton & Rachel Burgess

Vocem Video, a video interpretation of Impossible Music by Sean Williams

Body of Evidence, curated by Carollyn Cavanagh

Signs of Life and Way to Go: Tramstop 6 with Mike Ladd & Cathy Brooks

the art & science of embodiment with Catherine Truman

heartsong with Cheryl Pickering, Richard Chew, Dwani Oak and Sally Francis

Australian Dance Theatre with Garry Stewart

 

The Microscope Project: How Things Work

TMP How Things Work front cover COVER small

What were we going to do with a collection of decommissioned research microscopes? Two scanning electron microscopes, one almost completely disassembled, fluorescence microscopes, once state-of-the-art, that generated the images underpinning the international recognition of a generation of neuroscientists at Flinders University, a whole room of ancillary preparatory equipment and spare parts?

… and then there was all their supporting documentation: schematic diagrams and plans, manuals, advertising brochures, catalogues, certifications of performance, packing lists.

Some of the texts were so powerful, they needed only to be sampled and edited according to a pre-determined rule. Others formed the core of a new piece of writing. And in cases where we lacked any clear documentation, new texts were invented, imagining, re-imagining how things might have been, who might have been involved, how things might look, how things work…

Over more than 12 months, Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh and Nicholas Folland collaborated with these elements in the unique shared environment of The Distillery to create The Microscope Project, exhibited at the Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery, 26th July – 21st September, 2014, and curated by Fiona Salmon and Madeline Reece.

How Things WorkClick here for more.

shop

ABN 39 580 050 698


Books


sd18: A Skeleton of Desire

10 poems, 22 pp
Garron Publishing, Spring 2018,
Southern-Land Poets, Edition 6
ISSN 2202-7246
A$5.00 plus $1.50 postage and handling (Australia wide).



 

 

 


fb15: Floribunda 

floribunda front cover pic 1

19 full colour plates by Judy Morris, 13 poems by Ian Gibbins, 32 pp
21 x 21 cm, paperback, published June 2015
ISBN 9780646937892
A$22.50 including postage (Australia wide)

Nearly sold out – contact Ian if you’d like a copy.

 
 
 
 


mp14: The Microscope Project: How Things Work

TMP How Things Work front cover COVER small

Large format, 17 poems, 72 pp
Full colour images by Catherine Truman, Deb Jones & Ian Gibbins
Flinders University Art Museum, 2014
ISBN 978 0 9925472 1 9
A$35.00 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)




 
 
 


ub12: urban biology

45 poems, 96 pp
Wakefield Press / Friendly Street Poets, 2012
ISBN 978 1 74305 099 6
A$19.95 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)




 
 
 
 
 


CDs


CD 014: Microscope Music

15 tracks, total playing time: approx 50 min, 2014
A$10.00 plus A$3.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)




 
 
 
 
 


 

CD 010: urban biology – audiodraft

12 tracks, total playing time: … Click here for more.

bio

in case you were wondering…

Ian Gibbins was born and bred in Melbourne, not far from Caulfield Racecourse. After completing a PhD in Zoology at Melbourne University, he spent two years in Pharmacology Departments in the USA, before coming back to live in a hilly suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. For 30 years, he was a neuroscientist and Professor of Anatomy for 20 of them in the School of Medicine at Flinders University. Along the way, he managed to pick up an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In March 2014, he retired from his academic position to spend more time to write poetry , compose electronic music, produce videos, build a few websites, windsurf, and cook… Nevertheless, he has been awarded Emeritus Professor status at Flinders University.

neuroscience…

Ian has been internationally recognised for his research on the microscopic structure and function of the nerves that monitor and control the activity of the internal organs, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. His work used sophisticated microscopy techniques to see directly how different types of nerves connect up with each other, as well recording the electrical behaviour of nerves as they communicate via … Click here for more.