Yulia Hanansen, a member of MSOP, is an award-winning artist, educator, and owner of Mosaic Sphere Studio. Her background includes a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, an M.A. from the University of Michigan, an M.F.A. from Columbia University, several apprenticeships, and international artist in residency programs. Her unique one-of-a-kind artwork includes prints and drawings. Her stunning, highly detailed mosaics are aesthetically beautiful and thought-provoking.
Yulia describes her work as a fusion of scientific discoveries with visual poetry. She believes the disciplines of physical sciences and art are a part of the same spectrum that describes human curiosity. For Yulia, art cannot exist without science.
Yulia’s interest in science began in childhood when her father gave her a kit to build her own telescope. She loved to observe the sky around her and this sparked her interest in astronomy. Her scientific interest continued, especially in physics and astro-physics.
As a second-generation artist, Yulia finds that art is one of the ways of exploring the world around us. Scientific information is often presented in the form of an article or graph. Using this information in art gives all this knowledge a visual and emotional expression. Art makes science more visible and comprehensible.
In order to plan her artwork Yulia spends countless hours researching new information. She studies articles about new discoveries in astrophysics, follows NASA and ESA news feeds, researches ways to present information visually, and enjoys reading science fiction. Her goal is to get the scientific fact and then interweave it with the imagery. Although Yulia’s work is based on scientific information, she creates her own narratives with her own set of images. She likens these images to vessels that bare encoded information for the viewer to interpret.
Chemistry is also valuable to Yulia. It important to understand how the materials she uses in printmaking as well as mosaics interact with one another.
Through her art, Yulia encourages an interdisciplinary world, exploring the connection humans have to themes of nature, climate change, and cosmos. Her tesserae echo small particles that relate to physics. Her themes often reflect her environmental concerns.
The four images below are prime examples of how Yulia integrates the two disciplines. Her descriptions help us understand her interpretation and process.
“Light as a Wave as a Particle” 27”x 27”
Materials: smalti on colored thin-set and hand-formed substrate.
This work explores the dual property of light that sometimes behaves as a wave and sometimes as a particle. To emphasize this dual property, Yulia created a wavy substrate on top of which she placed tesserae of different colors. This is an image of a light seen through a prism. The tesserae seem like they are randomly scattered on the surface, however this effect is rather difficult to create. This is due to the square shape of the tesserae that lets them align in rows. To create a scattered effect, Yulia had to break up all the rows and intentionally push the tesserae out of a row position.
“Between the Two Eclipses”, 20”x 26”
Materials: paper, smalti, marble on cement substrate.
This image shows a double eclipse with a little blue planet and several satellites floating in-between. This is a depiction of an extra solar system of planets and suns, something that we can’t see even with the telescopes, but something that can be represented in an artwork. If there is life on that blue planet, what do its inhabitants see in the sky?
Archival quality paper was used to create the sun rays. In this case each piece of paper is like a very long and flat tessera that has been positioned sideways - a concept that Yulia has been exploring with her new work. By placing white tesserae between long pieces of paper Yulia continues to examine the dual property of light.
“Milky Way” , 30”x 48”
Materials: layered stained glass, smalti, glass rods and circles, coal, and other materials
This is an artistic interpretation of the Milky Way galaxy that we live in. Among many colors present blue has the most significance. Blue indicates the presence of water in the galaxy. This means that there is a possibility of multiple spots in the galaxy that can harbor life.
“Displaced Hurricane” 30”x40”
Materials: layered stained glass.
The hurricane and irrigation circles don’t mix! This is a futuristic vision of a hurricane taking over the desert area and bringing in too much of a good thing all at once- water. Although this type of event is unlikely at the present time, with the climate change and shifting weather patterns it may become possible for this storm to occur. Yulia’s signature technique, layered stained glass, was used for this project. The glass pieces are not only placed next to each other, but are also stacked upwards to create a relief in a mosaic.
Yulia believes that it is important for all artists to study science. By integrating the two disciplines, greater possibility and use of materials and medium become available. Yulia hopes that her work can inspire a much necessary dialogue between arts and sciences. This dialogue can lead to aesthetically satisfying and thought-provoking interdisciplinary projects in the future.
Although many of Yulia’s themes focus on her concern for the future of our environment and the negative effects of climate change, she is able to use her imagination and artistic skills to show beauty in every piece of artwork she creates. For further information visit her website at https://mosaicsphere.com/