From laboratory to art gallery

An artist has swapped the laboratory for an art gallery window and used microtitre plates in his latest project, which depicts cutting edge heart research.

Mark Eisheid created the piece using Sterilin 96-well microtitre plates filled with differing shades of blue-dyed agarose gel – usually used in the separation of DNA and RNA by electrophoresis. He was inspired to create his artwork after spending time in the research laboratories of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) at the University of Edinburgh. He was the centre’s artist-in-residence.

“I was able to consider materials that I wouldn’t normally have access to,” Mark said, “I was drawn to the Sterilin microtitre plate because, when filled with agarose gel and held up to the window, it multiplies the scene beyond.” He said this effect inspired him to create something that would change the experience of the gallery space in an architecturally compelling way.

The artist describes the piece – titled We Live Among Infinities and on display in the window of an Edinburgh College of Art gallery – as exploring ideas of conceptual and physical scale using materials in the laboratory. “In this application it is Edinburgh’s urban landscape that is reflected in each of the wells, Eisheid said, “This change in scale of the viewed object, from the microscopic to the macroscopic, inverts the relationship between the viewer and the viewed – between researcher and research instrument.”

The BHF CoRE aims to increase public awareness of cardiovascular disease and one of the ways they are doing this is by engaging with the public and encouraging young people into biomedical science by bringing the subject to life through art.