Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

Transparent glass microorganisms

It started with HIV and the last one was the H1N1 virus. Luke Jerram has made glass sculptures of various viruses and bacteria in the Glass Microbiology project over the past five years. Jerram reflects on the coloring of images of microorganisms. In fact, images of microorganisms are often given false colors, sometimes for scientific purposes and often for purely aesthetic reasons. “How many people think viruses are vivid colors?” asks Jerram on his website; “And how do colors affect the perception of these images?”

In this way, the colors are set aside, and Jerram makes transparent three-dimensional sculptures. And for this, he has chosen viruses and bacteria that have had a significant impact on humanity. In fact, the artist has also sought the tension between the danger and the beauty that these microorganisms present.

With the help of virologist Andrew Davidson of the University of Bristol, he has relied on various photographs and models to make his designs, completing the sculptures in collaboration with glass borers Kim George, Brian Jones and Norman Veitch.

Jerram has been on the verge of glassblower techniques; “some of my designs were impossible to make out of glass.” The same goes for the scientific side: “It has been beautiful to explore the limits of science to represent viruses. Scientists have not been able to answer many of my questions, such as exactly how is RNA accumulated inside the capsid?”