Andrew S. Yang’s, Stella’s Stoichiometry, is a chemistry-based artwork with measured out quantities of chemical elements and compounds that make up 99% of the artist’s daughter’s being at her birth. Not only do these elements and compounds equate to her birth weight but also are exact proportions of each. Upon first glance, both the name and the appearance of this piece communicate balance. Each glass bowl is carefully placed, whether it is on the base of the shelf or stacked on top of another bowl, giving the impression that though there are several pieces within the work, they are unified. Additionally, each inanimate compound used in this piece is a representation of the make-up of a living, breathing human, giving balance in the living and the lifeless.
Yang was able to create such a concept by collecting carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, hydrogen, and calcium in the forms of tap water, rock sugar, canola oil, powdered L-Arginine, and three oyster shells as chemical representations of his daughter and placing them in separate glass bowls, and organizing them on a shelf as a piece separate from the world. He also includes a chart that shows the exact breakdown of percentages and weights of the six elements that make up 99% of the human body and the elements within the compounds used within the work of art. As you can gather from this particular piece, Yang is known for the notable presence of using both sides of the brain as well as having a natural theme in his works. He combines art and science to create concepts that are both calculable and emotional with natural mediums.
“I create objects, installations, and texts to make various sense of the ever-changing connections between the theories, things and creatures that teem within our ecology of experience” (Yang, Statement)
Training in both biological sciences and visual arts, Yang utilizes his background to create pieces that examine and explore our relationship with nature often revealing perspectives that enhance viewers’ knowledge of enigmatic things like space, ecological history and our relationships with these things.
Yang’s art is primarily focused with the “interweaving ecologies of the natural, cultural, and biohistorical.” (SAIC highlights lectures citation) He uses his scientific knowledge and understanding to show the viewer the connections between art, nature, and the individual. Yang’s current exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art has “Stella’s Stoichiometry” as well as another piece that serves as a physical representation of the Milky Way, called “A Beach (for Carl Sagan)”. In pieces such as the one viewed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, his piece connects the individual very intimately to the larger scale of the Milky Way. The physical representation of stars as grains of sand next to the physical representation of the chemical components of his infant daughter forces the viewer to consider their place in the universe on a small and large scale simultaneously. In an article written by Yang called “Interdisciplinary as Critical Inquiry: Visualizing the Art/Bioscience Interface”, he uses the phrase “[the] key question is what kind of art practices creates more ‘access points’ for public participation in the crucial debates of bioscience,” and continues on to discuss artists that are using art to break down the divide in the social binary views of science and art. (citation) Yang’s art, especially his current exhibit, can definitely be analyzed in a similar fashion. His art promotes greater public engagement with sciences by challenging working assumptions of science with visual creations. As a science professor at an art university, it is understandable that the passion his art is based on stems from a desire to promote public interest in questioning and re-examining scientific knowledge.
Yang is influenced by his position at SAIC as a science teacher. He is constantly bridging the gap between art and science in his work and artistic pursuits. One could argue that what Yang wants other people to understand about his art is that he is challenging socially accepted and perpetuated ‘facts’ about art and biology, and proposing their “critical interdisciplinary engagement.”(Source) This is further illustrated in his article, “Interdisciplinary as Critical Inquiry: Visualizing the Art/Bioscience Interface” where he discusses his contemporaries and delves deeply into their pieces that also serve this purpose of integrating ideas on art and science. A few of the artists mentioned were Frankel, Berrigan, and Ballangee.
Yang is a multidisciplinary artist who uses his knowledge of biology to create thought provoking artistic creations. Visually pleasing and incredibly balanced, the piece “Stella’s Stoichiometry” was touching and interesting simultaneously. His ability to simplify his daughter in such a manner shows the depth to which his passions for science and art are intertwined.