The Whitworth Gallery reopens in Manchester tomorrow with a Cornelia Parker solo exhibition inspired by graphene, the thinnest and strongest material in the world.
Graphite sheets, one atom thick, a million times thinner than paper but harder than diamond, were discovered by Russian-born Nobel prize-winning physicists Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov and developed in Manchester.
During the £15 million rebuilding of the 100-year old gallery, Sir Kostya and a group of Manchester University scientists have been working with the museum curators and the artist Cornelia Parker on an epic re-opening event that begins tonight with fireworks inspired by a meteor and designed by Cornelia Parker:
Novoselov took microscopic samples of graphite from drawings in the Whitworth’s collection by William Blake, Turner, Constable and Picasso, as well as a pencil-written letter by Sir Ernest Rutherford (who split the atom in Manchester). He then made graphene from these samples, one of which Parker is making into a work of art to mark the opening of the gallery and exhibition.
A Blake-graphene sensor, activated by breath of a physicist, will set off a firework display which will return an iron meteorite into the Manchester sky. This meteor shower will be a spectacular and unmissable opening to the new Whitworth.
Sir Konstantin and Cornelia Parker BBC
CLICK for BBC arts report on the plan.
Cornelia Parker’s exhibition runs from 14 February to 31 May 2015. Free entry.
