One of the greatest mysteries of the mind is our memory, the ability to time-travel and use recollections, whether conscious or not, to shape our future choices. At our core, when we think about who we are, we rely on a confluence of evolving narratives we remember.
The work in Memory: Cerebral Entanglement started as a collaboration with the neuroscientist Dr. John Harkness who researches memory in Dr. Barbara Sorg’s Lab at WSU Vancouver. Included in the exhibit are three microscopic images taken from the lab’s research.
Dr. Harkness investigates net-like structures called perineuronal nets which surround neurons in our brain and are associated with memory retention and the close of developmental learning windows. Although these net-like structures were documented over a hundred years ago by Italian neuroscientist Camillo Golgi, their role in our memories is only beginning to be understood. Golgi described this scaffolding outside the neuron as a "kind of corset." That description was the inspiration for my sculptural materials. To echo Golgi, each tree-like neuron is ensnared in netted fabric that shimmers in its delicate embrace of scraps of memory held within each synaptic connection.
Ink portraits of untangled, overlapping individual neurons dance around the gallery walls. This is a small sample of the 86 billion neurons in the adult brain which, when networked and active, help generate our every sensation and thought.
In magnifying and re-imagining these hidden molecular structures, my aim is to evoke the wonder of discovery and offer an imagined vision of the spectacular biological machinery which may comprise the very core of our memories and our essential sense of self.
Untangled Series
The work in Memory: Cerebral Entanglement started as a collaboration with the neuroscientist Dr. John Harkness who researches memory in Dr. Barbara Sorg’s Lab at WSU Vancouver. Included in the exhibit are three microscopic images taken from the lab’s research.
Dr. Harkness investigates net-like structures called perineuronal nets which surround neurons in our brain and are associated with memory retention and the close of developmental learning windows. Although these net-like structures were documented over a hundred years ago by Italian neuroscientist Camillo Golgi, their role in our memories is only beginning to be understood. Golgi described this scaffolding outside the neuron as a "kind of corset." That description was the inspiration for my sculptural materials. To echo Golgi, each tree-like neuron is ensnared in netted fabric that shimmers in its delicate embrace of scraps of memory held within each synaptic connection.
Ink portraits of untangled, overlapping individual neurons dance around the gallery walls. This is a small sample of the 86 billion neurons in the adult brain which, when networked and active, help generate our every sensation and thought.
In magnifying and re-imagining these hidden molecular structures, my aim is to evoke the wonder of discovery and offer an imagined vision of the spectacular biological machinery which may comprise the very core of our memories and our essential sense of self.
Untangled Series
India ink and colored pencil on hand-dyed kozo paper, 37 x 25in, 2019
Created using the Allen Brain Atlas Database www.celltypes.brain-map.org for human neuron references.
Created using the Allen Brain Atlas Database www.celltypes.brain-map.org for human neuron references.