Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The advent of chemical symbolism in the art of Sonya Rapoport

  • Published:
Foundations of Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper explores the use of chemical symbolism in works by the new media artist Sonya Rapoport, with a focus on the pivotal Cobalt series from the late 1970s. These works, drawings on computer printouts generated by research at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, respond to experiments in nuclear chemistry. They mark the beginning of three productive decades in which Rapoport produced a variety of images related to chemistry in her work. She states, “I looked for authentic research projects that were interesting to me, preferably with captivating pictorial subject matter. Then came the creative chaotic process of resolving a cohesive product that combined scientific research with art concept.” Rapoport had an unusual degree of access to scientific materials through her husband, organic chemist Henry Rapoport, a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley. At the time of production, these works were outside mainstream art world interests and they have received little critical attention. This paper examines the development of Rapoport’s images and places her use of chemical references in context in her lifetime of work.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The range of possible interpretations can be suggested by two examples: John Lash, who describes his field as “metahistory,” offers a literalist reading in which he calls The Green Lion “a naive symbol indicating how sunlight converts to chlorophyll and thus provides vital energy….” (Lash 2006) Religious historian Karen-Claire Voss argues that “Symbolically this depicts a stage in the development of the alchemist where the illumination that was previously regarded as outside, “other,” to himself, is now being assimilated into his or her very being.” (Voss 1994)

  2. It was not simply chemical imagery and symbolism that fed Rapoport’s work, but also interaction with chemists. In a 1995 dialog with Anna Couey and Judy Malloy, Rapoport told a story about the advent of interactivity in her work that nicely demonstrates one aspect of the way her position in the University of California Chemistry Department social network contributed to her artistic development: “… a group (about 40) of my husband’s chemistry graduate students and post-docs were coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. For their entertainment, I drew on my studio floor two NETWEBS, mine with my own associative distribution of card images placed along related theme axes; and the empty plot for them to fill. Very amenable and bright and interested in my art work, the group viewed the configuration that reflected me, the artist, and were excited to reconstruct their own configuration. Winifred interviewed and taped each participant’s response as to choice of image card and why the placement in the particular theme. The verbal inquiry heightened the sense of participation, intensified the vitality of the process and provided documentation. So I added another phase to Objects on My Dresser.” (Couey and Malloy 1995). “Netweb,” a term Rapoport began around 1981, is her word for a spider-web-like drawing or construction showing the associations generated by the objects from her dresser; Rapoport later made an installment of Objects on My Dresser that compared the associative webs produced by artists, scientists, and lawyers.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Meredith Tromble

Authors
  1. Meredith Tromble
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Meredith Tromble.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tromble, M. The advent of chemical symbolism in the art of Sonya Rapoport. Found Chem 11, 51–60 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-008-9058-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-008-9058-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation