Pascale Pollier   //   Tesla’s Angst; A Tragedy of Errors

Pascale’s work attempts to capture the point where art and science meld. An alchemist at heart, her work begins with observation and experimentation, and is steeped in solid scientific research and findings. Her inspiration is drawn from observing the internal and external human body in all its diversity, life and nature in all its beauty, strength, fragility, disease, mortality, immortality and death. New technologies and philosophies, quantum physics, nanotechnology, animatronics are amongst her interest and are important in her work. This sculpture, of a newly born baby, was the result of having seen a distressing photograph of a deformed infant born after the Gulf War. The presence of depleted uranium in some of the war-heads is thought to be the cause of many deformations and birth defects. The sculpture would thus be seen to represent our fears of the possible future. The placenta, which represents our food source, our energy source, is petrified by nuclear radiation and is no longer functioning. Underneath the placenta is an MP3 player with the eerie sound of a geiger counter detecting radioactivity. Nikola Tesla would turn in his grave.