KAREN NEILL: MICROCOSM OR MACROCOSM?
Karen’s photography is cerebral, abstract, yet intensely colorful and somehow coldly inviting, like the ethereal austerity of nebulae so beautifully catalogued by the Hubble Space Telescope. At the same time, these pieces could easily be construed as false-color scanning electron microscopy of depleted uranium shells, or even subatomic cross-sections of terrazzo under a black light. So which is it? Here’s some third-person details from her website below:
Karen Neill studied Fine Art BA (Hons) at Byam Shaw School of Art at Central St Martins London. Her work centers on mapping the behavioral characteristics of the movement of fluid, using photography, film, projection, paint and installations. Research led her to the intrinsic textures of liquid crystal- a comparatively recently discovered phenomenon discovered in the 1960s, now used predominantly in communication - mobile phones, calculator displays, TV and computer screens. It is a derivative of cholesterol.
Karen worked on a residency as an artist in the laboratories at the Liquid Crystal Institute in Ohio, USA, photographing and filming the moving fluid. Her images are part of a series of sequences showing the movement - they are pure, using polarised light to show the orientation and behavior of the moving molecules within liquid crystal. She has completed 2 installations for the boardroom of the new UK offices of Roche Pharmaceutical - a series/sequence of liquid crystal images, printed onto acrylic Perspex for the boardroom and a 10 seater meeting room, and 2 installations for GSK.
Highly commended by Novartis/Daily Telegraph - Visions of Science - Photographic Awards 2005. She is a Fellow of The Digswell Arts Trust, where she works in her studio/laboratory at their new studios in Welwyn. She runs workshops in schools.
