Art and nanotech converge in campus biennial

For her newest work, Korean artist Kimsooja wanted to explore a "shape and perspective that reveals the invisible as visible, physical as immaterial, and vice versa." As artist-in-residence for the Cornell Council for the Arts' (CCA) 2014 Biennial , she has realized that objective with "A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir," to be installed on the Arts Quad next week. It will be one of several installations on campus for the semesterlong biennial, "Intimate Cosmologies: The Aesthetics of Scale in an Age of Nanotechnology," beginning Sept. 18 with a talk by Kimsooja. The biennial theme intends to "show how artists address realms of human experience that lie beyond our immediate sensory perception," CCA Director Stephanie Owens said. "Working with scientists and researchers makes it possible to produce art at the edges between disciplines.. generating lots of productivity and new thought." Kimsooja's 46-foot-tall structure features an iridescent polymer film developed at Cornell, reflecting light with structural colors similar to those in a butterfly's wings.