Art – Page 10 – Ian Gibbins

projects

Collaboration is absolutely the norm in modern science, so perhaps it is not surprising that much of Ian’s creative work involves collaborative projects with other artists. Click here to see a full list of Ian’s collaborations.

Follow the links or the menu items to see some of them:

The Taken Path: a durational project with Catherine Truman

The Microscope Project with Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh & Nicholas Folland

Floribunda with Judy Morris

not absolute with Catherine Truman, Judy Morris, Vicki Clifton & Rachel Burgess

Vocem Video, a video interpretation of Impossible Music by Sean Williams

Body of Evidence, curated by Carollyn Cavanagh

Signs of Life and Way to Go: Tramstop 6 with Mike Ladd & Cathy Brooks

the art & science of embodiment with Catherine Truman

heartsong with Cheryl Pickering, Richard Chew, Dwani Oak and Sally Francis

Australian Dance Theatre with Garry Stewart

Floribunda

Drawings by Judy Morris with accompanying poems by Ian Gibbins,

exhibited at the Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, 13th June – 26th July, 2015.

Floribunda was originally conceived by Judy Morris as a collection of drawings inspired by native and introduced plants growing in the greater Adelaide region. Judy is particularly attracted to the more unusual shapes and textures of these plants, carefully observing and documenting their emergence and eventual turnover.

The poems in Floribunda were written by Ian Gibbins in response to Judy’s drawings, their titles, and meanings hidden within the formal Latin titles of the plants. They imagine an expedition into unknown, dangerous country, the explorers struggling with the environment and themselves in equal measure.

Here is the poem relating to the title image:

Helleborus x hybridus

– Winter Rose –

Type description

Parenthetic warnings to maintain distance,
deceptively comfortable,
too often prone to swoon.

Field notes

Temperatures fell, vacated sodden nights,
reft seditious drowse, queathed stoney quave.
We should have predicted she would follow
her own route, her singular disjunctive path.
Tough and perpetually feisty, resilient turns
of phrase poised sharp on her perfumed lips.
Yet she surprised us, and faltered, overtaken
by qualm on a cusp of

… Click here for more.

The Microscope Project: How Things Work

What were we going to do with a collection of decommissioned research microscopes? Two scanning electron microscopes, one almost completely disassembled, fluorescence microscopes, once state-of-the-art, that generated the images underpinning the international recognition of a generation of neuroscientists at Flinders University, a whole room of ancillary preparatory equipment and spare parts?

… and then there was all their supporting documentation: schematic diagrams and plans, manuals, advertising brochures, catalogues, certifications of performance, packing lists.

Some of the texts were so powerful, they needed only to be sampled and edited according to a pre-determined rule. Others formed the core of a new piece of writing. And in cases where we lacked any clear documentation, new texts were invented, imagining, re-imagining how things might have been, who might have been involved, how things might look, how things work…

Over more than 12 months, Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh and Nicholas Folland collaborated with these elements in the unique shared environment of The Distillery to create The Microscope Project, exhibited at the Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery, 26^th July – 21^st September, 2014, and curated by Fiona Salmon and Madeline Reece.

How Things Work… Click here for more.

shop

ABN 39 580 050 698

Books

sd18: A Skeleton of Desire

10 poems, 22 pp
Garron Publishing, Spring 2018,
Southern-Land Poets, Edition 6
ISSN 2202-7246
A$5.00 plus $1.50 postage and handling (Australia wide).

fb15: Floribunda

19 full colour plates by Judy Morris, 13 poems by Ian Gibbins, 32 pp
21 x 21 cm, paperback, published June 2015
ISBN 9780646937892
A$22.50 including postage (Australia wide)

Nearly sold out – contact Ian if you’d like a copy.

mp14: The Microscope Project: How Things Work

TMP How Things Work front cover COVER small

Large format, 17 poems, 72 pp
Full colour images by Catherine Truman, Deb Jones & Ian Gibbins
Flinders University Art Museum, 2014
ISBN 978 0 9925472 1 9
A$35.00 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

ub12: urban biology

45 poems, 96 pp
Wakefield Press / Friendly Street Poets, 2012
ISBN 978 1 74305 099 6
A$19.95 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

CDs

CD 014: Microscope Music

15 tracks, total playing time: approx 50 min, 2014
A$10.00 plus A$3.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

CD 010: urban biology – audiodraft

12 tracks, total playing time: … Click here for more.

bio

in case you were wondering…

Ian Gibbins was born and bred in Melbourne, not far from Caulfield Racecourse. After completing a PhD in Zoology at Melbourne University, he spent two years in Pharmacology Departments in the USA, before coming back to live in a hilly suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. For 30 years, he was a neuroscientist and Professor of Anatomy for 20 of them in the School of Medicine at Flinders University. Along the way, he managed to pick up an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In March 2014, he retired from his academic position to spend more time to write poetry , compose electronic music, produce videos, build a few websites, windsurf, and cook… Nevertheless, he has been awarded Emeritus Professor status at Flinders University.

neuroscience…

Ian has been internationally recognised for his research on the microscopic structure and function of the nerves that monitor and control the activity of the internal organs, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. His work used sophisticated microscopy techniques to see directly how different types of nerves connect up with each other, as well recording the electrical behaviour of nerves as they communicate via … Click here for more.

gallery

Doing poetry around the place …

Ian windsurfing…