Artist Comments about the Project

Slides is an artwork that tells the story of four laboratories housed in the Iowa Laboratory Facility and brings them together in different relationships.

The Iowa Laboratory Facility houses four state laboratories with different functions and different points of interest and focus. They include the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the State Medical Examiner, the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory and Neonatal Screening, and the Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Laboratory. These are all individual laboratories and their sphere of expertise, inquiry and examination are different from each other, yet they focus on the well-being of the Iowa resident through the wide range of work they do.

One of the other influences which informed the artwork is the connection that people within the facility seem to have with Iowa — as a place, as the land, and as a place to be and to live. This inspiration of the Iowan landscape, juxtaposed with the technology and images of the work of the laboratories form the basis of this artwork. The images used in this work are put through the artist’s aesthetics and art filter to become the work for the facility.

Artist Comments about the Work

Slides consists of a series of painted and sandblasted sliding glass panels that are reminiscent of the glass slides used with specimens for microscopes. These glass “slides,” each show an aspect of one of the labs’ work, and can be moved and juxtaposed over the big landscape images and in relationship with the “work” of the other labs.

Each section includes five layers: a base layer which is stationary and includes an image of an Iowan landscape near the facility. The four “slides” or sliding glass panels in front of each landscape have images based on the work of each of the labs. These panels are painterly, include some photographic imagery, but interpreted through the artist’s hand, rather than as strict illustrations or photo documentation. Sometimes the images could relate to more than a single lab. Other times, it is much more specific to one of the labs. The panels can be moved to create different juxtapositions between the images, or to bring some elements into primary view. This recalls the work of the labs themselves, where relationships, examination, inquiry and the shifting relationships between elements form the basis of much of their work.”

The glass for this artwork was produced at Franz Mayer Studios in Munich, Germany, as a collaboration between the glass craftspeople at the studio and the artist, who hand painted many of the panels. The steel framework for the glass was fabricated in Seattle by Fabrication Specialties, Ltd. and Ron Klein, and installation and other work was accomplished by the artist with assistance from Ralph Berry, Evan Blackwell, Craig McNeil and Jim Dawson.