Positioned across two sides and five storeys of the building on Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge campus, the work by artist Annie Cattrell is a significant addition to the public art collection within the city and allows visitors to experience ‘science in action’.
Commissioned by Anglia Ruskin University, the art celebrates the transformative process of experimentation and change within scientific teaching, learning and research. It also aims to reflect the transformation of lives and societies through education and research.
The artwork is made of tens of thousands of suspended coloured anodised aluminium squares, which reflect and refract the surrounding light and move as the weather and environmental conditions change.
Artist Annie Cattrell has completed a number of public art commissions including at Oxford Brookes University, the award-winning New Biochemistry Building at the University of Oxford, and is currently lead artist at the University of Cambridge’s New Museums Site.
Her artwork has been selected for major exhibitions including Medicine and Art at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Out of the Ordinary at the V&A; and Brains: the mind as matter at the Wellcome Collection, London, and MSI Manchester.
She said: “The concept that underpins Transformation is informed by one of the main aims in the design of the science centre, by Richard Murphy Architects, which is to see science in action.
“My plan was to animate the west and south faces of the 90-degree corner of the building. This was in order to give it a unique, ever-changing focal stimulus that reinforces the identity and purpose of the new science centre as a hub for knowledge, academic excellence and creativity.
“It is also intended to act as a metaphor for the transformative nature of energy and learning, in this case the momentum that can happen in scientific research and its on-going impact on the world beyond academia.”
Professor Helen Valentine, Deputy Vice Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin, said: “We are delighted with this eye-catching new artwork. We hope it is enjoyed by all visitors and our local community, as well as students and staff.”
The launch event on Tuesday, 13 February begins at 5pm and runs until 7pm. It is free to attend and open to everyone.