Dreams of Homunculi has been commissioned as a response to a recently restored, unattributed  17th-century oil painting in the Museum’s collection, which depicts a scholar instructing four angels in a mysterious alchemical experiment. The painting, of a chemical laboratory, has been restored with the support of the Woodmansterne Art Conservation Fund and will be displayed in a small exhibition, Alchemy and the Laboratory, with other alchemical images and manuscripts from the archives, along with the Dreams of Homunculi video installation. Together, the display will offer an insight into the century of ‘chymistry’, a time when this nascent modern science was intertwined with the study of ancient alchemical secrets, magic, and religion.

The legend of the homunculus – a human being in miniature – is central to Charles Ogilvie and Vid Simoniti’s piece. This figure of an artificially-created diminutive man was often drawn in alchemical manuscripts of the 16th and 17th centuries to allegorically illustrate alchemical processes. At the same time, the legend fuelled controversy about the possibility of creating artificial life. Using dreamlike sequences of video and text, Dreams of Homunculi presents these debates through the writings of Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Margaret Cavendish and other figures of the scientific revolution, revealing a blurred boundary between science and the occult.

Charles Ogilvie works in a range of media including metal, ceramics, printmaking and video, and has exhibited at venues including the Gloucester Cathedral and the V&A. He was shortlisted for Saatchi Young Sensations and the Red Mansion prize in 2011. Vid Simoniti is a writer who works on connections between art, philosophy and science. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Scatcherd European Scholarship and the Ruskin Scholarship.
 

Dreams of Homunculi
10 March – 7 June 2015
Museum of the History of Science
Broad Street
Oxford
OX1 3AZ
Open: Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/