Visual Arts
Cosmic Consciousness
Rockefeller Chapel, Daily
Tuesday January 22 to Tuesday February 19
Artist’s reception, Friday January 25, 4 pm
A newly commissioned installation by artist and neurologist/neuroscientist Audrius V. Plioplys
Update: Plioplys completed a YouTube video of the entire installation, which includes a sermon that he gave on Sunday January 27, 2013. View video here
Chromodynamics by Audrius V. Plioplys
Close up of Chromodynamics by Audrius V. Plioplys
Audrius (Andy) Plioplys, MD’75, formerly professor of neurology at the University of Toronto and
later the University of Illinois at Chicago, merges neuroscience with art. He now works full time
in his art studio, producing large-scale works representing his extraordinary metaphorical
investigation of thinking and consciousness. His works are on permanent display throughout
North America and in Europe.
Cosmic Consciousness is designed for display on three levels. Origins appears on the high walls of the east transept, consisting of two 10 × 20' works. The kinetic, rotating Whirling occupies the west transept, four semi-transparent pieces 4 × 8' in size. And on the lower level are four 5 × 12' works on canvas, Chromodynamics.
Andy Plioplys will be offering the sermon on Sunday January 27, with a lunchtime reception to follow.
Origins
Origins addresses the grand picture of cosmic consciousness, exploring our human origins at galactic, stellar, planetary and cultural levels. The galactic structures, against a background of nebulae from the Hubble Telescope images, consist of stellar units with human cerebral cortical neuronal profiles. Within the thousands of neuronal profiles are photographs, memories, from the places of origin of the Indo-European languages and cultures: the 10,000-year-old Chatal Hoyuk in central Turkey, and Hattusha and Shapinuva in the Hittite world.
Whirling
Whirling consists of Plioplys’ memories of previous artistic activities transformed into neuronal profiles, melted together with his own brain’s MRI structural images and electroencephalogram thought tracings. The semi-transparent backgrounds of the pieces allow the environment, and other viewers, to be seen through them, thus fully incorporating the surroundings. The whirling dynamism refers in part to the Mevlevi Sufi religious practices which originated in Turkey and are reflected in the mystical writings of Rumi (and which will be illuminated by live whirling dervish performance at the Yuval Ron concert, page 1, during the time of this installation)
Chromodynamics
Chromodynamics is a visual investigation of the question of where memories are stored. These large-scale artistic explorations, submicroscopic in origin, go beyond neuronal synaptic connections, and probe memory storage through the worlds of the quantum and of string
theory. They were created by looking at fine details, almost microscopic in nature, of pieces from Plioplys’ previous series Symphonic Thoughts, enlarged and transformed.
Almost as an afterthought, Plioplys applied the same microscopic investigation to the new images and discovered, to his delight, that he had unexpectedly produced images reminiscent of Monet’s large scale water lily paintings! He explores this phenomenon in materials accompanying the installation.