Lewis Andrews was interviewed for the fourth (and final) edition of the Contrast publication. You can find the online exhibition version of the publication here.
Your work explores cosmic phenomena on both molecular and cosmic scales- what drew you to these and how do you think it reflects on humanity’s existence and perhaps our experience?
I’ve always had a natural curiosity for science and the cosmos since I was young. The idea to combine my artistic practice and the exploration of cosmic phenomena was only implemented during my bachelors degree. I feel that our species is incredibly curious and strives to understand our surroundings as much as possible. When it comes to the cosmos, we are incredibly curious and I believe that looking outward gives us a new perspective of ourselves in a few different ways. One of these is the delicate nature of our planet, being the only known planet to harbour intelligent life and the need to protect it as we are not capable of leaving it yet for another home.
You mentioned that you ‘conduit between art and science’ How do you balance science and artistic interpretation together?
My artworks aim to generate an ‘Informative Encounter’ with my audience. Whereby my audience gains new knowledge from the artwork communicating a scientific endeavour. It’s important to remain true to scientific sources but then also add a little interpretation to it which makes the artwork its own. A good example would be most of my cosmos work is not of an actual cosmic phenomena e.g. a black hole. However, it employs similar mechanics in terms of gravity and light to generate the image. The overall aesthetic is created to break down the distance between the audience and an imagined viewpoint emulating what it would be like to view a black hole on the edge of its event horizon. That was the process of creating the ‘Singularity’ series of photographic works.
Furthermore, how has your understanding of science through both the formal study and personal exploration influenced the evolution of your artistic practice?
Most of the knowledge I’ve gained in these subject matters is self-taught. It does fill me with a little joy when someone asks me if I studied science at a higher level of education, to which my answer is no, it makes me pause and think of how far I’ve come in terms of bettering my knowledge of numerous subject matter. Part of this is that as much as the ‘Informative Encounter’ is experienced in the outcome by the audience, I gain a more intimate ‘Informative Encounter’ in the study and production of my work. This has resulted in interest in more complex areas of scientific study such as the Immune System and driven the production of new works which try and communicate information, data and ideas.
For the GRB works, could you take us through the process of their creations from the choice of inverted Indian ink to the completion of the work?
‘Cosmic Snipers’ takes an interest in the cosmic phenomenon known as Gamma Ray Bursts. These incredibly energetic beams erupt from the poles of massive stars during their death throes in a supernova and race across light years of the cosmos. Firing blindly into the night, these beams are powerful, and if they make contact with anything within a few thousand light years, very destructive. They could strip away atmospheres from young worlds and destroy the ozone layers of others. There’s a popular theory that they could be stripping away civilisations in distant galaxies and we wouldn’t have known they existed.
They started by looking at observations of GRBs and trying to emulate that aesthetic as closely as possible. Indian Ink has been the bread-and-butter material of my art practice for quite some time. Experimentation over the years of its application has allowed me to achieve different shapes, tones, contrasts etc. It also has a more conceptual aspect to my art practice as it’s primarily made up of Carbon atoms and to me, this is important as all life on this planet is Carbon-based and the element itself originated from nuclear fusion within the cores of supergiant stars. So there is a link between our pale blue dot and the cosmos. Once complete as a physical drawing, the drawing gets scanned in and digitally the drawing goes through more editing processes, changes in tones and inversion to become a work which can visualise these phenomena through a metaphoric window to the furthest reaches of the cosmos.
Did you face any challenges with ‘transferring’ high-energy cosmic phenomena’s into a two dimensional art form?
It was important to emphasise how powerful these jets can be and their destructive nature. Two ways in which I feel the work still communicates this through a 2D work is the focus on the negative space in the jets. The overall amount of light that appears to be emitted through tone usage and the absence of anything within the beams come across as raw energy. To then communicate the destructive nature, some of the works take the perspective of looking down on a solar system as the jet comes racing through, engulfing several small planets as it washes over them.
You talk about questioning our ‘place and role’ within the universe- how has making this series shifted your understanding surrounding that question?
With each work regarding cosmic phenomena, I begin to understand, and hopefully my audience too, the complexities of the life cycles of the cosmos. Our role in all of these is to observe. We are a way for the universe to experience itself. However, in some of my work for example those that touch upon the destruction we are causing to our planet in the form of the release of CO2 and non-renewable energy sources, then our place and role are very different. Those works are a call to action. For some of my other works, which endeavour to communicate more information in a story-like fashion, then the audience becomes almost like a pupil and the artwork a teacher. The place and role aspect of my practice is different for each work. However, one thing that cannot be denied is that our place within all of my work is that we are as much a part of the cosmos as the cosmos is a part of us. It’s not something incredibly far away. It’s here every second or every day.
Furthermore, are there any emotions or reactions you want viewers to have or experience for your work?
During my masters degree, I researched and theorised more along the lines of what my work wanted to do with the audience, which is where I developed my methodology of the ‘Informative Encounter’. During this, I identified ten characteristics within my work that one or more of my artworks possess.
• New Knowledge
• New Viewpoints / Impossible Viewpoints
• Comprehension
• Visualising Data
• Collapsing Distances
• Answering Questions
• Open Up Conversations
• Condensing Information
• A Catalyst for information
• Understanding or attempting to Understand
Although they are important, for me the crucial one in the list is ‘Open Up Conversations’. That’s what I would love most in the audience after an interaction with my work. Open up conversations on the subject matter and the artwork possibly stimulating an interest in the subject and maybe further research. It may be even as simple as gaining a new appreciation for something they didn’t previously know.
Are there any other scientific events or phenomena that you plan on exploring in the future?
My sketchbooks contain many ideas for future works. A healthy habit of mine is to be constantly reading and researching a source, such as a book, once a month and extracting from it information which can possibly lead to new work. As a result, my sketchbook has a wide variety of scientific phenomena and areas of study which may lead to new artworks in the future. Ranging from ideas like Earth’s geological history condensed into a series of drawings with each one representing an amount of time to produce a large body of work that creates a perspective on the billions of years Earth has existed to a photography-based series of work looking at the beauty within thermodynamics of steam engines and how we transfer energy into work (e.g a steam locomotive being used to haul a train).
Also- where do you see your artistic practice in the next ten years? Are there any projects’ you’d like to share with us?
Hard to say. I try to keep it open as I feel this brings a lot of options for me to decide to the table. Current thoughts on my mind are turning to the application for a PhD in art, although where, when and what specifically is still being decided as I write the proposal as we speak. Whatever the case, it’s a big world, and certainly a big enough cosmos, to continue giving me ideas and concepts to explore within my art practice for years to come.