shelley.allen@bristol.ac.uk

I am equally passionate about my twin worlds of discovery: art and science.

As a scientist at the University of Bristol, working on Alzheimer’s disease, my artistic aim is to use glass on metal to explore and crystallise scientific ideas.

The themes which particularly interest me are of memory, our perception of reality and the idea of 'clarity from a distance', both spatial and temporal. My work follows the concepts of uncovering our buried past and facing long forgotten memories that we stumble across. I have tried to portray this in the context of archaeological digs, underground maps, or even as jetsam washed up on the beach.

I use mainly copper because of the superb and often unexpected interactions that are possible with each type of enamel or temperature used. Generally my pieces can be hand-held simply because I love feeling and touching enamels and seeing them change their mood in different light sources.

At the moment I am working mainly in two dimensions but I have begun to explore the third dimension as a way of providing a further opportunity to cover and uncover ‘treasures’ that may be hidden below. The creation and interpretation of our shared realities are where science and art meet. I would like to use glass on metal to examine the boundaries between these disciplines and to find a way forward which unites them.