A new exhibition of 3D digital artwork, video, physical sculpture and wall panels by Marianne Selsjord, inspired by the work of 17th-century artist and naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian, is now on display in the Jock Colville Hall.
3D artist Marianne Selsjord (1955–2014) was a painter and trained restorer of medieval polychrome sculpture, who early on became fascinated by the possibilities the computer opened up for exploring colour and painting-techniques, which she taught at the National Academy of the Arts, Oslo.
Marianne’s deep love of plants and gardens led to her large-scale original 3D explorable artworks. Marvellous Transformations is inspired by the work of naturalist and artist Maria Sybilla Merian (1647–1717), who visited the Dutch colony of Suriname on the north-eastern Atlantic coast of South America in 1699 to explore and record insect and plant life. In 2013, Marianne Selsjord travelled to the rainforest of Borneo, accompanied by her husband, geographer and photographer Dr David Scott Silverberg, to experience first-hand its plant and insect life today.
In this exhibition Selsjord’s contemporary 3D art explores the full potential of Merian’s extraordinary pictures, dynamising time and motion, and adding atmosphere from her own travels and observations, to carry out her own ‘Marvellous Transformations’.
Marianne Selsjord’s work has been shown at the Samuel Dorsky Museum, New York; Federal Reserve System Fine Arts, Washington DC; the South Bank Centre, London; Ultima Festival and Henie Onstad Art Centre, Oslo and Galleri Vanntårnet Nesodden, Norway. In Norway Marianne also created 3D projections on stage for Händels ‘Acis and Galatea’ (Oslo Baroque Opera) and for the outdoor dance performance on snow, ‘Mot Himlaleite’, in the mountains at Sauda (2012).
This exhibition of Marvellous Transformations at Churchill College is the first presentation of the work in multimedia form.
Jock Colville Hall | January 25–February 1, 2015 | 9am–5pm daily
Marvellous Transformations Exhibition programme
Image: Aubade by Marianne Selsjord
