Title: Microcosms
Artist: Effie Paleologou
Dates:  19 September – 25 November 2016
Times: tbc
Location: King’s College London, Colonnade, Guy's Campus

Artist Effie Paleologou has turned London’s streets and pavements into her laboratory, recording specimens of discarded chewing gum with the eye of a forensic detective. Based on the hypothesis that saliva is a DNA carrier she has approached each piece of gum evidence as a unique mark of identity.

The resulting images are reminiscent of geological formations where the sense of distance is unclear, shifting constantly between close and far, micro and macro. What might be a telescopic view of the constellations of the cosmos could equally be a Petri-dish seen through a microscope.

Paleologou is mapping the city through the debris of its anonymous inhabitants. Each has left an intimate marker of their passing to create numerous fossil-like residues, clinging to the pavement for posterity, while ever being reshaped and eroded.

As well as displaying images from the Microcosms series for MOUTHY, Paleologou will explore the subject of her work, the discarded gum, with researchers from King’s College London.

See more on the Science Gallery website

About the artist:

Effie Paleologou is a London-based visual artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, in collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens.