Analyze This!

A chimpanzee holds a monarch butterfly in a ceramic art work titled “Darwin.”  

Human hands cradle insects and assorted objects in a ceramic work titled “Analyze This.”

Those are just two of the art works featured in a juried show under way at  the Pence Gallery, 212 D St., Davis. The show, sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program and the Pence Gallery,  explores the connection between art and science. The show opened March 10 and runs through April 12. 

You can view the art, listen to music and talk to artists at the free public reception set for 7 to 9 p.m., Friday, March 13 at the gallery. The art is amazing,  said Art/Science Fusion Program co-director Diane Ullman, associate dean undergraduate academic programs of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and professor of entomology at the UC Davis Department of Entomology. 

Among the work exhibited in the show is that of Catherine Chalmers, one of the distinguished series of speakers in the Consilience of Art and Science Colloquium, sponsored by Art/Science Fusion, which is part of the Science and Society Program, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 

The “Darwin” piece is the work of ceramic artist by Nuala Creed of Petaluma. Of her art Creed says: “As he sits holding butterflies and the jawbone of an animal, the chimp gazes directly at the viewer. His offering to us, his next of kin, is his curiosity of the natural world. His intelligence is shown by his inquisitiveness. His name is Darwin, in honor of Charles Darwin, whose work helped us realize that we humans are not above nature, but are of nature. The chimp may be asking us to observe our natural world, to be the scientists that may help save our planet.” 

The “Analzye This” piece is by Ann Savageau, associate professor of design at UC Davis.  Savageau  explains: “This is Art analyzing Science analyzing Nature.  It makes visible the analytical methodology at the heart of the scientific endeavor. We take our measuring, probing, dissecting, and classifying for granted, as "the way things are".  We forget that these are recent cultural constructs. “   

Another ceramic work, “Twins,” by Marnia Johnston of San Mateo, appears to be twin insects. Johnston says of it: “Much of my work looks at the physiology, psychology and culture surrounding humans and our relationships with other organisms. I research the direct and indirect impact we have on them based on our unconscious environmental decisions. ‘Twins’ suggests the effects of pseudo-hormones produced by industry waste, topical steroids from male hair products, and other cosmetic products, on the physiology of organisms in our environment."

And it’s all a part of the Consilience of Art and Science Colloquium. What is consilience, you ask? William Whewell (1794-1866), who coined the term in 1840, described it as the linking together of facts and principles from different disciplines to form a broad, comprehensive theory that spans the realms of knowledge. 

E. O. Wilson brought consilience into the modern lexicon with his highly acclaimed book, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge.