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ELIZABETH BALL-KYRTATAS / dit: EK (England, Liverpool b. 1959 / act: Athens) |
EK emerged as an artist in Athens, 2004. Born in 1959 and raised in England as Elizabeth Ball, she has chosen the initials of her married name, Kyrtatas, as her artistic signature. Without formal artistic training, EK developed her art from her experiences as a scientist and it is appropriate that in science 'E' represents energy and 'K' indicates kinetic. The wire sculptures encompass both of these, energy and movement.Though she developed as a scientist, EK has also always viewed the world as artist. EK feels she is still going through her research phase, gathering links and accepting influences that are currently tentative and often fleeting. She is comfortable creating spontaneously and experimenting, which she often finds to have some correspondence to mainstream art. This she may not have done independently of art history, but her influences are not at a conscious level. She has used a number of ways and media to express herself in art, yet her artistic signature shows through. She uses utilitarian, everyday stuff including industrial prefabricated materials and other found items to distill simple ideas out of complexity. She is looking at connectivities, sensitivities, variations to look deeper inside the essences of life.
EK has a university career as a molecular geneticist, gaining a PhD at the University of York in 1987. A brief spell in Heidelberg at the European Molecular Biology Laboratories was followed by post-doctoral research fellowships at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore USA, studying genes and development in the flight muscle of fruit flies. With her collaborators, she has published papers in top class scientific journals.
EK has taught biology at the International Baccalaureate section of The Moraitis School since it started in 1991. She has recently published a book entitled "Where Art and Science Entwine" for IB students following the Theory of Knowledge course.
In 2005, she gave a lecture entitled "Fractals in Art and Science: The links between Pollock's drip paintings and molecular genetics" at the First International Inter-disciplinary Conference "Science and Art: Seeking the Common Points, Discussing the Differences", organized by the Hellenic Physics Society and held at the Eugenides Foundation in Athens in cooperation with the British Council.
EK continues her work as scientist, teacher and artist in Athens.
[Megakles Rogakos 07/2006]
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EK Where Art and Science Entwine 2006 Anagnosis, Athens
