Marianne Lovink is a Toronto-based sculptor residing currently in London, U.K. She received a BFA (Hons) from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario and spent time as an artist-in-residence at The Banff Centre in Alberta. Lovink has exhibited her work extensively in public, non-profit, and commercial galleries and has been the recipient of numerous municipal, provincial and federal arts council grants. Her work is represented in both public and private collections, including those have the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Osler Hoskin and Harcourt; OMERS; City of Richmond Hill; Atlantis Films Canada, and University of Saskatchewan. She has recently completed a site-specific commission for the Drake Hotel in Toronto, and is currently working on a new body of work with the financial assistance of the Canada Council. Marianne Lovink has worked in the arts as a sculptor, creating sculptures in different materials such as thermoplastic, resins, and metals. Her art centers on exploring the juncture between art and science. Marianne Lovink uses art and science to find the right names for her creations, hybrid, mutation, organic, organism, primordial, metamorphosis, genetic, thermoplastic, art & science, beauty, molecule, virus, synapse, tumor, swamp, spora, specimen are just a few. Marianne Lovink¹s work has be been shown in galleries such as and has a piece hanging in the Drake Hotel in Toronto Canada. Marianne Lovink Artist Statement 2005 Schemata is an exhibition of new suspended sculptures by London, England based, Canadian Marianne Lovink. These works, comprised of hand-formed sprung steel wire and translucent skins of resin-coated paper, reference the graphic language of signs, symbols, diagrams, maps, structures and systems that serve as pervasive visual code in our modern consciousness. The elements of each piece are presented in groupings; each one suggesting a possible solution to a hypothetical problem. They are curious organic machines, reminiscent of scientific models that quietly defy interpretation. 2004 As a sculptor, my work has centered on exploring the juncture between art and science: a place where the imagined meets the real or the conscious meets the subconscious. I am particularly interested in creating imaginary hybrids ambiguous new versions or mutations of the natural that are both unpredictable and unsettling. This ambiguity of form, gives rise to conflicted feelings of curiosity and alarm by highlighting the duality of natures allure and potential threat, and allows me to explore our inherent distrust of the unknown, our perceptions of mutability, and our perceived vulnerability in the face of genetic experimentation. My most recent work has evolved through experiments with a thermoplastic product originally developed by the medical industry for orthopedic applications. This material is light, strong, and versatile and allows me to work directly to hand-form multiple elements that combine to form large-scale installations. This series harnesses light and shadow to create dreamlike environments of other-worldly forms, while referencing deep-sea flora, microscopic cellular organisms, and the sustaining system of veins, nerves, vessels, and roots that support life. I am currently in the process of augmenting these environments by incorporating sprung steel wire to give added sculptural form and definition to each element. The latest addition to the Hanging Garden series is a vast floating carpet of hybrid forms that hang just above the viewers head, which aims to create a sensation of being submerged and elicit a physical and psychological response from the viewer. 2003 As a sculptor, my work has been inspired by nature, but informed by science and the processes by which we record and measure. I am interested in exploring the juncture between art and science: a place where the imagined meets the real or the conscious meets the subconscious. During the past few years, this has developed into a fascination with the hidden: either through size (microscopic cells), through location (aquatic life), or by age (extinct life forms). It is the inherent duality of these forms their ability to elicit conflicted feelings of curiosity and alarm and the resulting effect on us - both physically and psychologically, that intrigues me. Rather than faithfully reproducing these forms, I prefer to use this rich and varied hidden world only as a reference point. I am particularly interested in creating imaginary hybrids ambiguous new versions or mutations of the natural that blur the distinctions between the familiar and the unknown (or real and imagined). This ambiguity of form, which is unpredictable and unsettling, results in the creation of an anxious object, one that defies expectations by deviating from the cultural norm. My recent work also continues to explore issues of beauty specifically, its ability to act as a lure to seduce and subvert and thus tap into the desires and fears of our subconscious. By exploring our inherent distrust of the unknown, our perceptions of mutability, and our perceived vulnerability in the face of genetic experimentation, I hope to highlight the dichotomy of natures allure and potential threat and thereby provoke and intrigue the viewer. Marianne Lovink 2002 Hanging Garden is part of a new body of work that has evolved through experiments with a thermoplastic product originally developed by the medical industry for orthopedic applications. This material is light, strong, and versatile and allows me to work directly to hand-form multiple elements that combine to create evocative large-scale installations that evoke our microscopic world and provide a sensory virtual tour of the primordial. This series incorporates light and shadow to create dreamlike landscapes of other-worldly forms while referencing deep-sea flora, microscopic cellular organisms, and the sustaining system of veins, nerves, vessels, and roots that support all life. I am currently in the process of expanding upon these themes by introducing wall and floor-based work, both sculptural and two-dimensional, to enhance and augment these environments. This work also continues to explore issues of beauty its ability to act as a lure to seduce and subvert and thus tap into the desires and fears of our subconscious. By exploring our inherent distrust of the unknown, our perceptions of mutability, and our perceived vulnerability in the face of genetic experimentation, I hope to highlight the paradox of natures allure and potential threat and thereby provoke and intrigue the viewer.