Chain of Life

DIMENSIONS: 8x8FT L 6FT H PAINTED STEEL & CHROME 1996

"In the beginning"

Chain of Life hangs in the atrium of the Science Centre of Harvard University. If you think in musical terms, Professor R.J.P.Williams, of Wadham College, Oxford, was the composer of this sculpture, and I conducted the orchestra. Another edition of the sculpture is destined to be placed in the Inorganic Chemistry Department of Oxford University.

I have always been fascinated and delighted by the minute forms that Nature takes, such as diatoms. When I look at some Replicators through the microscope, I can almost believe they are about to move. If you have watched the miracle of Slime Mould on film, it is not hard to imagine the Chain of Life as a body with eyes, about to wag its tail!

I am told that once this molecule of two carbon atoms (black), one Nitrogen atom (green), one Oxygen atom (blue), plus the Hydrogen atoms (chrome), was formed, life on earth became possible. Looking at the sculpture I can beleive it.

I can't tell you what a thrill it is for someone like myself, who left school at the age of 16, to be able to work with great Chemists and Mathematicians.

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