Crystal World

The Royal Society, London, 2011.

This essay is the Introduction to an exhibition catalogue ‘Crystal World’, held at the Royal Society in July-October, 2011. The exhibition was conceived and curated by Gill Perry with the Royal Society. The essay explores modern artists’ fascination with crystals and shows how different artists have been inspired in different ways by these complex, transient chemical processes and their aesthetic possibilities. It considers some of the metaphorical and literal associations of crystals, and various explorations of their real and imaginary possibilities in both art and science.

The exhibition featured the work of British artists Ackroyd and Harvey and Michelle Charles, and French artist Hubert Duprat.