DESMA 9 Event 1 | Alchemy + Art

I attended the Alchemy + Art event by Ann McCoy on the 14th of April. Going into the event, the only prior knowledge I had about alchemy was that it was a pseudoscience that believed that commonly found metals could be turned into rare metals such as gold and silver. Attending this event gave me a deeper insight into alchemy, and its connection with thought, consciousness and art.

My registration confirmation for the event


As the Getty Research Institute states, alchemy was about more than just attempting to transform metals, rather it was a process that tried to “bend” nature to human imagination. Additionally, philosophers, scientists, and artists looked to it as an answer to the secrets of human creativity. This was reflected in the talk by Ann McCoy as she talked about the role of the subconscious in the creative process, and how the subconscious has impacts on our day to day life that are not always obvious. Additionally, Ann McCoy talked about some of her own art, and the way in which dreams and past experiences along with the subconscious helped her create some of her own pieces. However, alchemy was not always linked with philosophy. George Carton states in “Ancient Alchemy and Abstract Art” that as chemistry and alchemy developed independently, chemistry was able to find tangible results that pushed science forward. On the other hand, alchemists had failed at their initial goal of the synthesis of gold, and as time moved on, they started to incorporate more mystical and philosophical thinking into their practices. In “The Problem of Alchemy”, William R. Newman states that there was and has always been confusion about where chemistry and alchemy were separate, and how closely linked they were, but that both did have a base in experiments. Thus, we see that alchemy, while experiment-based, was also linked with more philosophical ideas, such as consciousness, and was more than just a quest for the creation of gold.


The levels of consciousness and thought


Ann McCoy also showed us a lot of pieces of art that had to do with alchemy, and one of the pieces that stood out to me the most is the one below. The image depicts an owl that appears to be creating birds by painting them into being, and also shows alchemy equipment in the back. These are references to the link between art and alchemy and also supports the link between alchemy and thought/consciousness as it appears that the owl, an artist and an alchemist, is able to bring birds to life through their creative process which is itself linked with alchemy.


"Creacion de las Aves" (Creation of the Birds) by Remedios Varo


Sources:

  1. “The Art of Alchemy.” The Getty Research Institute, The Getty Research Institute, www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/alchemy/. 

  2. SARTON, GEORGE. “Ancient Alchemy and Abstract Art.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, vol. 9, no. 2, 1954, pp. 157–73, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24619792. Accessed 20 Apr. 2022.

  3. Newman, William R. “The Problem of Alchemy.” The New Atlantis, no. 44, 2015, pp. 65–75, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43551427. Accessed 20 Apr. 2022.

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