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Artworks resulting from being Artist in Residence

The Isaac Newton Institute of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University hosted Davey on a six month residency related to its research programme, The Mathematics and Applications of Branes in String and M-theory, from which these works originated. These are Eye, Green Circles (both three works of glass and aluminium); M-Theory multiple in two parts (oak) and M-Theory cast iron pig feeders.

Davey’s sculpture was inspired by notions of mirror symmetry in T-duality and string theory where there are surprising pairings of objects. Davey’s commissions reflect the response of an outsider to the environment of contemporary theoretical physics where, like the spectator of the artworks, s/he is challenged to examine what such pairings mean and how they evoke an alternative way of viewing the world far removed from our usual notions of perception. These artworks creatively address how T-theory challenges a conventional view of ‘stable’ reality by making space and time malleable concepts and offering up odd combinations. By raising awareness of how these apparently idiosyncratic ideas have so deeply penetrated into our cultural consciousness through quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle (here inscribed on the sculptural surface as in M-Theory multiple in two parts), Davey underlines how complex mathematical theories have become part of the contemporary cultural landscape even if difficult to apprehend. The residency marked Davey's collaboration with the physicist, Dr David Berman: http://www.newton.ac.uk/art/gdavey/ The project was jointly funded by the Isaac Newton Institute and the Henry Moore Foundation with a fabrication grant, totalling £3000. Davey and Berman also hosted a discussion session on 10 July 2012, about how artists and scientists can work together.

The residency featured in the Institute's 2011-12 Annual Report and in Plus Magazine, (see: http://plus.maths.org/content/string-theory-duality-and-art-how-higgs-boson-and-turner-prize-collide).

The work was also exhibited at the National Trust’s Isaac Newton’s house, Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, (2012-13).