The Worlds of If

Please join us for the launch of the artwork, ‘The Worlds of If’ and to hear artist Sara Barker in conversation with Sarah Brown (Director, The Lightbox)

Celebrate Public Art on Campus and hear about a recent installation.

Measuring an impressive seven metres by just over six metres and positioned more than four metres above the ground, ‘The Worlds of If’ by artist Sara Barker joins our collection of Public Art on Campus.

The sculpture is made from lightweight welded aluminium and iridescent paints, which allows parts of the structure to take on a different colour depending on the angle it is viewed from. The title, ‘The Worlds of If’, is in reference to the possibilities that open up when scientists and engineers work together and share ideas, in direct response to the location for which it was commissioned.

‘The Worlds of If’ has been installed on the state-of-the-art Sir William Henry Bragg Building, a new engineering and physical sciences development at the University of Leeds. The building is named after Sir William Henry Bragg, whose pioneering research at the University in the early 1900s won a Nobel prize and unlocked some of the biggest discoveries in modern science. As people walk around the sculpture, the symbols that represent that research are gradually revealed – the Bragg equation: nλ = 2 d sin θ.

Barker said of the work: “I want the work to sit between the qualities of drawing, collage, textile, painting and sculpture, and its meaning and derivation to be correspondingly subjective and open to our interpretation.” 

Schedule 

4.30pm – Meet at ‘The Worlds of If’, Sir William Henry Bragg Building, on Woodhouse Lane

4.45-5.30pm – Artist Sara Barker in conversation with Sarah Brown (Director, The Lightbox). Lecture Theatre 2.37, Sir William Henry Bragg Building

5.30-6pm – Drinks reception

‘The Worlds of If’ is located on the Sir William Henry Bragg Building on Woodhouse Lane. For directions, see the campus map.