TOTEM FIGURES (I & II)
mixed media and liquid crystal on coiled wire
(i) signed and dated Catlin Segal 24 lower right
(ii) signed Gail lower right
each 97 x 13cm; 38 1/4 x 5in
each 151 x 66cm; 59 1/2 x 25 3/4in (framed)
(2)

Property of a Private Collector, Cambridge

Provenance
Acquired from artist in 1999
The DinksFãStan Private Collection, Cambridge, UK

Gail Catlin started working with bronze, but made a name for herself in the South African art world with her liquid crystal paintings. While Catlin lived in Arniston, she became fascinated, but also frustrated, by the nacreous quality of sea shells and mother-of-pearl, and was convinced that a new colour spectrum needed to be developed to capture the subtle and ever-changing shades of Nature. She also realised that she was more fascinated by the colour spectrum of the moon than of the sun.

While at the Royal College of Art in London in 1983, Catlin visited Imperial College and asked the scientists there how she could capture the pearly colour of sea shells. They advised her to use a mirror to split white light into the colour spectrum. She made contact with a Dr Cyril Hilsum at General Electric, who was a world expert on liquid crystal and indeed it was he who first introduced her to the mesophase.

The beauty of liquid crystals from an artist's point of view, is that they are infinitely flexible and fluid and can be painted onto an artwork; for her, it is like painting with liquid diamonds. Through painstaking experimentation over many enormously frustrating years, both in England and South Africa, Catlin gradually began to master the fugitive alchemy of liquid crystals.

The artist has exhibited in France, Russia, England, Germany and America as well as the Demarco European Art Foundation, Edinburgh, UK and the Kaust Science Museum, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is the recipient of many international awards for her work. Her is represented in all the major public art museums and corporate collections in South Africa.