Microbiology by Luke Jerrams

Written By: Zan Dani

When we think of fragility the majority of us think think of glass, our phones and other material items we may posses. Now how many of us would think of our own bodies as being fragile? be honost. The human body is capable of infection by a deceases from the air, water, dirt and even the food we eat may have something that could kill us. We are very fragile creatures with death lurking at every corner from an attacker we do not see, smell or even feel entering our body's in fact we wont even know we are under attacked until it is too late. I am talking about the micro-organism's like the ones that make up our body and the viruses we are constantly fighting from birth. When we look at the bigger picture we humans are probably the must fragile creatures in existence and this microscopic animal is the leading cause of death among us.

I hope I haven't scared you too much so far I just want you to keep what I said in mind while I talk you through the work of Luke Jerrams. He is a glassblower and sculpture artist by trade but a few years ago he earned himself international fame by series of work he introduced to the art world we all love and hate. His influence for these immaculate pieces of glasswork is the micro-organism's like HIV,Flu and the organism's that we have created to fight them. His skill as a glassmaker with the excellent choice of subject has gotten him into some of the leading art galleries and an Illustrious name for himself


His works at it's physical form are very fragile and require careful transport However the subject the work is based on is the main killer of our species. As an artist I must say I like the idea more than the work, not that I dilike either it's just that the idea is so genius and different I think it also requires ome heavy thought. Jerrams did not like the artificial colours that were used to show the Viruses in the pictures we all see in medical books and must media. He wanted to show these organism's in a much different way as far from digital media as he could and glass was his chosen craft. The transparency of the glass lets you see fully the skill in Jerram's work as well as the complexity of his chosen subject

To the left is the HIV virus from a medical book and to the RIGHT is the HIV virus by Jerram

When we look at the physical form not only does it look fragile and intricate but at first I think it seems rathe small in size. When I first saw his work I expected them to be the size of a fist or smaller which still seemed remarkable to me judging by the detail. The majority of his work is quite large fo glass and when you see the work being interacted with by a person it does seem surreal and alterd in a way. I think the size does play a role in the work, in that size it looks like a corpse of the real thing. Because they are typically the size of a small animal you suddenly acknowledge the existence of them more than you would from the digital illustrations.