Focal Points
Group show at Heptagon AMS group, Zurich / Switzerland
June 29 - August 24 2017, curated and organized by Sabrina Andres.
Andreas Lüthi (CH), Laura Sennhauser (CH), Athene Galiciadis (CH), Eva O' Leary (USA), Lina Scheynius (SE), Wataru Yamamoto (JP), Stephen Gill (UK), Dominique Teufen (CH), Jules Spinatsch (CH), Andri Stadler (CH) & Yoshinori Mizutani (JP)
From a distance, art and science seem to have little to do with each other. If we take a closer look the thematic similarities emerge, science and art are human attempts to understand and describe the world around us. Both fields strive for the society to move forward, to make life easier, more comfortable, to make the world a better, safer and joyful place. The subjects and methods may have different traditions, and the target audiences might be different as well. Yet both artists and scientists invent new concepts and technologies in order to accomplish their visions, and in the best case inspire each other. Once applied both become fundamental aspects of our lives: scientific discovery leads to technology, and art leads to progress through challenging paradigms of society and reality through sensory creativity.
The exhibition Focal Points at Heptagon AMS group aimed to create a conceptual link between these two fields. The show exhibited works of artists who approach questions around optics, which was aligned with the company’s specialization in micro optics. This is not a new direction for artists, it goes far back into art history: impressionists, during the second half of the 19th century, focused on the study of light and spectral colors in order to convey emotions and feelings. Further the exhibition included a fine selection of geometrical abstractions and concrete art where geometrical forms emanate directly from the mind and consequently are more cerebral, where the artist looks for new systems, to get new inputs from our mind, the shapes, and colors that surround us, and find new approaches in order to understand the bigger picture of the universe.
Focal Points did not claim to be a technical exhibition, or to focus on mere technical aspects. Rather the selection took the company's staff beyond the technical, and had them be playful with aspects of optics and senses, Focal Points highlighted artistic expression within the companies expertise of optical science.
