A commission for Design Biologix - A laboratory producing veterinary vaccines in South Africa

The point of departure for this sculpture is the antique belief that the elements of fire, air, water and earth constitute the basis for all sciences - physics, mathematics, chemistry and medicine. The artwork constitutes a life-size, immersive ‘book’ in which elementalism is used as an analogy for the production of modern vaccines - while retaining the childlike sense of wonder encountered in the contemplation of science. The work is made entirely from wood, and each of the more than twelve species chosen for its construction was selected for its colour, symbolic, cultural and historical associations. The work takes the viewer on a journey from the feverish, sickly and chaotic moment of infection - via organs, laboratory pipes and twisted proteins - through to the stable, cool state of full recovery.