Crystal World: Introduction

This essay is the Introduction to an exhibition catalogue 'Crystal World', held at the Royal Society in July-October, 2011. The exhibition was curated by Gill Perry. The essay explores modern artists' fascination with crystals and shows how different artists have been inspired in different ways by these complex , transient chemical processes and their aesthetic possibilities. It consdiers some of the metaphorical and literal associations of crystals, and varous explorations of their real and imaginary possibilities in both art and science. The exhibition featured the work of artists Ackroyd and Harvey, Hubert Duprat amd Michelle Charles