Dr.
Robert Chambers, Pioneer in the study of living cells
John LeKay.
Robert, please tell me about your grandfather.
Robert Chambers.
Robert Chambers (1881-1957) (My Grandfather) was best known
for his fundamental and enduring work on the biophysics of
protoplasm. He worked on the structure of living membranes,
capillary physiology, mesonephros function, fertilization in
marine eggs, and adhesiveness of cancer cells in tissue
culture. His astonishing development of the
micromanipulator, along with the essential glass needles,
micropipettes, electrodes, and microgages, stands as a
landmark in the progress of science.
Born in
Erzurum, Turkey, of Canadian missionary parents, he grew up
in a deeply religious household and in the exciting
atmosphere of Armenian-Turkish disputes. He went to Robert
College in Constantinople, graduating with a BA in 1900. He
received a MA from Regina (possibly now part of Queens
University, Kingston, Canada) in 1902 and then taught high
school in
Bardezag, Turkey
from 1902-05. He began his career in research at the
University of Munich, working under the great zoologist
Richard Hertwig, with whom he obtained his Ph.D. degree in
1908. He pursued his investigations on living cells with a
sense of adventure. This adventurous spirit derived from the
harsh, exciting life he spent during his formative years in
eastern Turkey.
Much more
about his scientific career can be found from obituaries
(e.g., Science 126:645 or Biological Bull 115:10-11) or the
book Explorations into the Nature of the Living Cell by
Robert and Edward L. Chambers (My father) from Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1961 LCC No
61-8845. His labs were at NYU for many years where my father
and myself graduated.
I later held
a sculpture teaching position in the NYU Art Dept. I was in
the basement of the Alfred Star Barney Building on Stuvesant
street between 2nd and 3rd avenue. The shop had been set up
in the 30's to make war machines and now the same machines
and tools produced peaceful art. (Well, most of it was
peaceful...)
JL. Tell me
something about your art background, your teaching, your
inspirations for making scientific based work?
RC. Dr.
Edward L. Chambers, MD, my father, raised me to be a
scientist. He, like his father, has spent most of his life
as a cell research scientist. At the same time, Eleanora,
my mother, raised me to be a Sculptor/painter like herself.
I grew up in the laboratories and studios of my parents
and over the years morphed into an artist. After many
science classes, major changes at schools, and stints as a
lab assistant I ended up combining the two and chose the
sculptor label as I obviously did not have the discipline
required to become a scientist. What is ironic is that I had
my NYU graduate masters show at 80 Washington Square
Gallery. My part of the show resembled a lab of machines,
including a mechanical sidewalk. It had been my grandfathers
laboratory long before and where my father had researched as
well and in another way I was following their path. The
grandfather's house had been across the street.
The idea of
combining contemporary art and scientific principles somehow
has kept me busy. I remembered that when I was a kid that in
chemistry class while daydreaming I would remember the
molecular formula by associating the structure with
mythological animals (I was reading Homer and the Iliad at
the time) For example Alcohol (ethanol) looks
like a dog with the 4 hydrogens as feet, a head of Oxygen,
nose of hydrogen, body of two carbons and a tail of hydrogen
= CH3 CH2 OH or C2 H6 O. Sugar (Sucrose) looks like Kerberos.
With time mythologies of one people overlap with another's
until hundreds of years later they intersect with a
contemporary art form. The atoms of these structures
are similar to associative images made of pixels in a
digital photograph.
JL. Can you
describe your working process in creating sugabus.
RC. The
commission for the Laumeier sculpture park in St. Louis,
Missouri: For this particular exercise I used tennis, ping
pong and snooker balls to create a maquette of the Sugabus.
After I made a digital rendering based on this and it was
looked at by a committee and approved. Then I went through a
long process of searching for a foundry that could cast a 6
ton bronze sugar molecule.
The
best place for the job turned out to be in Sanford, Florida
at the American Bronze Foundry a 5 hour drive from
my studio. Normally they specialize in park monuments,
decorative work and biblical figures all cast large scale.
The owner of the foundry wanted to get into casting a
contemporary form and said yes, we can do it. 4
months later he was dying to give back the deposit and toss
in the flag but he stuck it out. 8 months later again he
felt the same way and with what would have been a great
monetary loss, was ready to toss in the flag and right at a
particularly difficult phase of construction, he made a
breakthrough and surged on to completion.
I would drive
up as often as I could to chase the work and help orient the
45 spheres. I would hear various members of the crew
muttering things from beneath their masks like "moron!" or
"what kind shit is this?" and "He's trying to kill us with
these balls of heavy crap." They would glare at me with
disgust but when the project was near completion the Crew
and owner were beaming as they had blasted out a difficult
sculpture. It looked as though it was full of helium as it
sat in the gritty foundry. They worked very hard and did an
excellent job.
When I
watched it evolve I was thinking: "What was I thinking!" but
when it floated over to Laumeier, and was nestled into a
hillside, it all made sense.
JL. Are
you planning on making more of these sculptures for other
parks or sculpture gardens or museums in New York, I
think it would make perfect sense.
RC. I
am planning on proposing more of these molecular sculptures
for other sites. I am hoping the right opportunity will come
my way.
