Art through the eyes of a chemist

A recent invitation I received from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney prompted me to explore its artworks with a more focused frame of mind than usual.

As part of its public events programme, the MCA runs a ‘cross-disciplinary’ talk series to accompany different exhibitions. Visitors can ‘hear experts from a range of different fields share their perspectives on key exhibition themes’. I have been invited to share my perspective as a chemist on the museum’s mid-career survey of works by the Australian artist Nicholas Mangan. And so I challenged myself to explore Mangan’s work with a chemical mindset as I popped down to the gallery one weekend in late April.