An interview with Lesley Jackson, curator of the From Atoms to Patterns exhibition
Earlier this year, Lesley Jackson, a writer and curator specialising in 20th century design, was invited to create an exhibition at London’s Wellcome Collection to explore the pioneering design work being produced in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. The result was ‘From Atoms to Patterns’, an exhibition that brings together a range of pieces designed by the Festival Pattern Group for the 1951 Festival of Britain. With the exhibition now open, Lesley talks to us about the Festival, the designs and her inspiration for the project.
The pieces were all designed specifically for the Festival of Britain. What was the Festival?
The government of the time intended the Festival to be a ‘tonic to the nation’ after World War II. It was a national showcase celebrating Britain’s achievements in science, technology and the arts. The centrepiece was on London’s South Bank – where the South Bank Centre now stands – and was dominated by the huge Dome of Discovery. Other exhibitions took place elsewhere in the capital and all around the British Isles. The Festival was jolly, colourful and extremely popular, with over 8.5 million people visiting the main site in London over the five months it was open.
The pieces in the exhibition were created specifically for the Festival by the Festival Pattern Group. Who were these people and what were they trying to achieve?
The Festival Pattern Group was a team of manufacturers who worked with textiles such as wallpapers, ceramics, glass and metalwork as well as the newly developed materials of plastics and laminates. The participants were brought together by the government to take part in a ground-breaking project that aimed to produce dress fabrics, furnishings and accessories decorated with patterns inspired by atomic structures. These patterns were based on diagrams supplied by a team of scientists who worked in the new field of X-ray crystallography. Led by Dr Helen Megaw from the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, the idea was to bridge the gap between science and art by using scientific diagrams as a source for decorative design.
What is X-ray crystallography and why was it so important?
X-ray crystallography is a technique for taking X-ray photographs of materials and then analysing the results to see how the atoms are arranged. It was originally applied to crystalline materials such as quartz and emerald, but was later used on all kinds of substances including biological molecules such as haemaglobin – the oxygen carrying part of the blood. It was this technique that led to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953 and it has played a key-role in many other important aspects of 20th century science.
Where did the idea come from to develop the designs you can see in the exhibition and what is their significance?
It was Dr Helen Megaw who originally came up with the idea to use the atomic diagrams as a source for pattern designs. She realised that the diagrams were intrinsically beautiful and would work well when translated into printed and woven textiles. At the time, her idea was extremely original as no-one had tried to do this before and the work opened up a whole new field of scientific imagery for the now iconic scientific styles of the following decades.
How did you yourself come to be interested in these works?
I discovered the work of the Festival Pattern Group when I curated an exhibition about post-war design in 1991 called ‘The New Look – Design in the Fifties’ and then went on to explore their work a little more for a book I wrote on design. Ever since then I have wanted to do more research on the topic, which the ‘From Atoms to Patterns’ exhibition has allowed me to do.
Where would you recommend people go to learn more about these pieces?
The ‘From Atoms to Patterns’ exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London will give you a once in a lifetime opportunity to see all the weird and wonderful objects created by the Festival Pattern Group on display under one roof, as most of the material on display is usually hidden away in archives and museum stores.
However, if you can’t get to the exhibition itself, you can visit the Wellcome Collection’s website – www.wellcomecollection.org – where you will find a range of images. You could also buy the exhibition’s accompanying book: From Atoms to Patterns – Crystal Structure Designs from the 1951 Festival of Britain which is available at the Collection’s bookshop or from the publisher – Richard Dennis – who you can contact by emailing: books@richarddennispublications.com.
How long does the exhibition run for and how can people get more information about visiting?
The exhibition runs until 10th August at the Wellcome Collection which is opposite Euston Station in London and is free to enter. For more information you can either see the website www.wellcomecollection.org or telephone 020 7611 2222.