​ROBIN DOWELL

MOLECULAR

white metal alloy, clay

 

 

This was part of a series of pieces, sculptural and drawn, in response to a childhood drawing game invented by my maternal grandfather, biochemist Izrael Hieger. In this, seemingly randomly selected everyday objects were carefully depicted and connected to each other with a single line. Incomprehensible rules about the compatability of these forms existed, and subsequently I have come to suspect that they related to his work in the laboratory.

He died before I had the opportunity to ask, so the rules remain a mystery. 

Casts of these remembered images were embedded in terracotta clay which, as it dried, developed cracks reminiscent of the connecting lines of the game. They maintained an arbitrary feel, tempered by a suspicion that natural laws of drying rates determined their exact placement and growth.