STRAIGHT TALK
with Julian Voss-Andreae
Julian Voss-Andreae
is a German-born
sculptor based in
Portland, Oregon.
Voss-Andreae’s sculpture is inspired by
quantum physics,
for which he pursued
a graduate degree,
participating in seminal work on quantum
mechanics and behavior.
(detail) Villin Headpiece Folding detail (2011). Longest
object length 11’. Steel, aircraft cable, paint.
Q: As a science-based artist, you seem to truly
have one foot planted in each discipline. How
did you come to combine your two interests,
and what do you think your art has gained from
your science, and vice versa?
A: What later became separate interests had
been one thing when I grew up. I always had a
very deep sense of awe for nature. My mother
told me that she would frequently find me
sitting in the sandbox staring at small grains of
sand for hours on end. One of my favorite toys
of my childhood were Lego blocks; there really
was no distinction between the engineering
solutions and the aesthetics of the pieces I was
working on. When I design a sculpture today
there still is an odd feedback loop between
engineering solutions that feel elegant and the
aesthetics that flows from it. The form always
follows “function” — function here doesn’t
mean a simplistic utilitarian function, but more
a mix of engineering solutions and conceptual
ideas expressed in terms of “guiding principles”.
8
The idea of using guiding principles is one
of the tools I have learned to appreciate in
science. A grand example is Heisenberg’s
decision to talk only about things we can
measure when he developed his version of
quantum mechanics.
Q: Your 2011 project with biochemist Daniel
Gurnon sounds really interesting, would you tell
us a little bit about this collaboration?
A: Dan Gurnon called me up out of the blue
because he was visiting Portland and he wanted
to see my studio. He is teaching biochemistry
at DePauw University in Indiana and a friend
of his is a Sculpture professor at the same
college. So they decided to do a collaborative
art/science project and invited me to join them.
I was going to contribute my expertise and,
together with art and science students, they
would build the sculptures. I came to Indiana
to get them started and show them how to
measure and cut and weld, and then they built
SciArt in America August 2013