Gemma Anderson-Tempini

All Is Leaf is a new solo installation at Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly, bringing together work made over fifteen years of visiting the islands and joining scientific fieldwork. The works, drawings, etchings, paintings, collages and photogrammetry, respond to Tresco’s unique hybrid plants: species from separate origins that have crossed to form new plants found nowhere else on Earth. The exhibition draws on the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who observed that all plant parts are transformations of a single underlying structure, and marks the first formal documentation of these hybrids. ‘All Is Leaf’ is on display in the Garden History Room, alongside a site-specific drawing guide and digital presentation of the hybrids accessible by QR code.

All is leaf, Collage, hand painted marble paper, 2025/2026: Hedera helix, Fatsia japonica, Geranium maderense, Microsorium diversifolium, Petasites fragrans, Cyrtomium japonicum, Asplenium nidus, Schefflera digitata, Asplenium oblongifolium, Dryopteris filix-mas

This series ‘x,y,z,w,ana+kata: Shadows from the fourth spatial dimension’ was part of the installation.

‘Growing Una and Cosmo’ depicts the breastfeeding pattern of baby twins in the first full month of their life (2020). It is composed of a series of twin circles on either side of a logarithmic spiral (also known as a growth spiral). The image was drawn from information about breastfeeding collected by Gemma Anderson-Tempini (the mother and the artist), in a series of notebooks since the babies’ birth until they turned two years old, documenting the timing and duration of every feed during each 24 hour window. Although she had a sense of the ‘pattern’ of the breastfeeding, Gemma wanted to ‘see’ the pattern. The resulting image is a visual abstract representation of breastfeeding. Making the image involved patient care and attention, not so different to the kind required in mothering.

In ‘The Botanical Revolution in Contemporary Art’, Kroller-Muller Museum, NL, 2022 and ‘The Botanical Mind’, Camden Art Centre, London, 2020

A single amino acid, a dot ( . ), becomes a chain of amino acids ( ….. ) – a protein, a line (——), moves in space to become a plane, then a volume. Like in drawing, a dot progresses to a line, to meander in space. So it seems that drawing might be an appropriate way to experiment, to ‘be like’ the protein.

‘Organic development in a work of art is at least analogous to, and probably identical with, organic development in nature; in an organic-artistic scheme the essence of art is in processes rather than its products; and such artistic ‘events’ as are thrown up are significant merely in that they reflect past, present and future aspects of the dominant process’. (Thistlewood, 1981)

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Alicia Boole Stott (1860-1940), a self-taught mathematician and daughter of logician George Boole, pioneered visualization of the fourth spatial dimension—a geometric concept where objects exist beyond our familiar three-dimensional world. The fourth spatial dimension allows for properties impossible in 3D space, such as objects being turned inside-out without tearing, or the complete rotation of 3D solids to produce mirror images. Using her brother-in-law Charles Hinton’s color-coded cube system, Boole Stott achieved what few could: mentally constructing and then physically manifesting 3D cross-sections (or “slices”) of four-dimensional polytopes, earning her the nickname “Princess of Polytopia.” A century later, Gemma Anderson-Tempini has revitalized this tradition through her contemporary artistic practice. Both women share a foundation in Goethe’s “delicate empiricism”—combining observation, intuition, and imagination to make the imperceptible tangible. Where Boole Stott collaborated with mathematician Pieter Schoute to create models that now reside at Cambridge University, Anderson-Tempini works alongside mathematicians Alessio Corti and Tom Coates to manifest irregular lattice polytopes through paper constructions and 3D printing. Anderson’s practice extends further into the digital realm with virtual models of half a billion unfolded forms. Like explorers returning with specimens from an unseen world, both women serve as translators, bringing shadows of higher dimensions into our material world, transforming abstract mathematical concepts into objects we can see and touch.

This series featured in the Artangel Comission ‘And She Built a Crooked House’ Leeds, 2023-2024 here

Cell division, also called mitosis, occurs in all living things and is a fundamental process for life.  During mitosis, a cell duplicates all of its contents, including its chromosomes, and splits to form two identical daughter cells. Mitosis is facilitated by dynamic protein polymers, filaments termed microtubules, which coalesce into a complex structure – the mitotic spindle. The spindle exerts physical force upon duplicated chromosomes, ultimately facilitating their faithful segregation into two equal complements. This is usually followed by cytokinesis – the physical cleavage of the cell into two, through the constriction of the cell membrane.

Here, we have moved away from the textbook images of cell division that show artificial gaps between phases of activity, to an integrated image of the whole at once. We sit together, artist and scientist, drawing stages – sub-processes within the whole – and asking questions “is it like this?”. Then we take a wider view, aiming to connect the stages. At this point we move outside of traditional structure-function relationships, and we might think of the process as a dance, a musical score, or a changing array of energy. We create a four-dimensional template in which to draw, and this provides a framework in which to represent the relationships that are at play in the process we aim to represent. We imagine cell division like a polyphony, and carefully draw the energy landscapes, the rhythmic organisations, the tunes. The feeling for the process takes centre stage as we revise, redraw and reform, synthesizing our drawings first in pencil and then, later, into colour ). We ask other scientists to ‘read’ the image and they tell us they see cell division. ‘Mitosis Score’ is a new image of cell division, all stages connected in one image, and it reminds us of other organic life forms.

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These new images raise their own questions – what is happening in the negative space mid-way through? Can these be answered with traditional science, or with something more holistic? And so we can continue, with untested hypotheses formed through and of drawing, to experiment further in art and science.

More about this work can be found in the open access book Drawing Processes of life here

These works on paper stem from a collaboration between artist Gemma Anderson and mathematician Alessio Corti to create a novel visualization of embryonic development using topological concepts from mathematics. Rather than representing embryonic development as a series of disconnected stages, they applied Morse theory to create a continuous “stratified space-time worm” that shows the entire developmental process as a single connected image.

Starting with Kathryn Tosney’s “Origami Embryo” model (which uses paper folding to demonstrate embryonic development), they identified key topological changes in development and drew these as a series of 14 cross-sectional “slices.” These slices were then reassembled into a three-dimensional representation where time is treated as a spatial dimension. This approach allows viewers to see embryonic development not as discrete snapshots but as a continuous topological transformation, capturing how structures like the neural tube and gut form through folding and fusion. Their work transforms traditional embryological visualization by emphasizing topology over morphology, creating images that represent both the individual stages of development and the continuous process as a whole.

More about this work can be found in the open access book Drawing Processes of life here

(Series, 2016)

Pencil and Watercolour on Paper

These works on paper stem from a collaboration between artist Gemma Anderson and mathematician Alessio Corti to create a novel visualization of embryonic development using topological concepts from mathematics. Rather than representing embryonic development as a series of disconnected stages, they applied Morse theory to create a continuous “stratified space-time worm” that shows the entire developmental process as a single connected image.

Starting with Kathryn Tosney’s “Origami Embryo” model (which uses paper folding to demonstrate embryonic development), they identified key topological changes in development and drew these as a series of 14 cross-sectional “slices.” These slices were then reassembled into a three-dimensional representation where time is treated as a spatial dimension. This approach allows viewers to see embryonic development not as discrete snapshots but as a continuous topological transformation, capturing how structures like the neural tube and gut form through folding and fusion. Their work transforms traditional embryological visualization by emphasizing topology over morphology, creating images that represent both the individual stages of development and the continuous process as a whole.

More about this work can be found in the open access book Drawing Processes of life here

This series of drawings were made in collaboration with a mathematician (Dr.Berta Verd, Uuniversity of Oxford), and a biologist (Dr. Johannes Jaeger) at the KLI, Vienna. The drawings explore the potential of drawing for understanding biological process. Read our article ‘Drawing to Extend Waddington’s Epigenetic Landscape’ here

A short note on the ‘Isomorphogenesis’ series (2014):

‘Isomorphogenesis’, is a drawing based algorithm that experiments with analogue simulations of theoretical morphology and also explores the potentialities of representing morphology as a dynamic and formative process. Isomorphogenesis builds on the Isomorphology method as it progresses from the empirical study of the morphology of static museum specimens towards a conceptual study which aims to draw morphology as dynamic.

Isomorphogenesis brings together my experience of working with practitioners in theoretical and empirical branches of science (mainly at the Natural History Museum and Imperial College) in that it unites the observational and the abstract – experiment and theory – through drawing. As such Isomorphogenesis samples aspects from the work of others and employs theory in the service of practice.

Historical and contemporary concepts from the fields of natural science, mathematics, philosophy and art which investigate and interpret morphological development, have informed Isomorphogenesis. For example, D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form (1917), which famously combined biological and mathematical concepts through a work of scientific prose and influenced artistic representations of dynamic form.

Isomorphology (Anderson, 2013) is a comparative, drawing based method of enquiry into the shared forms of animal, mineral and vegetable morphologies. As a holistic and visual approach to classification, Isomorphology runs parallel to scientific practice while belonging to the domain of artistic creation. It is complementary to science: addressing relationships that are left out of the scientific classification of animal, vegetable and mineral morphologies. More information about the following series of copper etchings can be found here www.isomorphology.com

‘Portraits: Patients and Psychiatrists’ (2009-2010, Wellcome Trust Arts Award)

Described as ‘unique in Art History as the first series of portraits to mix psychiatrists and psychiatric patients indiscriminately in one collection’ (Jordanova, Schupbach 2010). The series of 16 life size etchings and accompanying publication has toured the UK and is currently held in the collections of the Wellcome Trust and the Victoria and Albert Museum. This collaboration between Anderson and Forensic Psychiatrist Dr.Tim McInerny (Bethlem Royal Hospital), enabled the artist to enter each individual’s environment; The Bethlem Royal Hospital, The Maudsley, London Health centres and schools, and even individuals homes. In this series of fourteen life-size etched portraits, the individual is identified, not by name and occupation, but visually, by their biographies and internal personal lives. Public and private self are united through Andersons curiosity and compassion; as her probing of inner worlds, as bizarre and entangled for the practitioners as the patients, links all the portraits together. The etchings explore medical ‘phenomena’ such as neuroses, phobias, traumas, disability, disease and injury. These portraits are ‘medical’ in a special and profound sense that notions of medicalization cannot capture.

This project toured the UK and has been exhibited at the Freud Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum where it is now in their permanent collections.

Since 2011 I have been collaborating with geometers Professor Alessio Corti and Dr Tom Coates at the Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London.

Mathematicians work with images and forms, although many of these forms are hidden: either because they do not exist in the physical world or because of their physical scale. Coates and Corti are involved in an ambitious project to classify Fano varieties, which are mathematical geometries that form basic building blocks for other mathematical shapes; one can think of this as constructing a Periodic Table of shapes, analogous to Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of chemical elements.

More info here

Botany: Drawing from the Bark Collection at Kew Gardens

Bark and Lava

Hercules Seghers (Netherlands, 16th century) is one of my favorite artists. Only about ten of his works on paper still exist, some of which can be viewed by appointment in the British Museum’s Prints and Drawings Room.

His etchings are beautiful and incredibly experimental for their time. The landscapes are strangely unplaceable—although supposedly set in the Netherlands, they appear more like alien terrains.

I began to wonder how Seghers might have created these works. Having previously studied the paintings of Joachim Patinir, who was rumored to draw mountain forms in landscapes from rocks, I wondered if Seghers might have also drawn landscape forms from rocks or other organic materials. Looking closely at his landscapes, I realized the marks, shapes, and lines reminded me of bark formations. This seemed an interesting idea to investigate, so I decided to reinterpret some of his landscape compositions by drawing bark forms from life in place of the cliffs and jagged terrain he had depicted. I cut copper plates to the exact size of his works and began researching where I could find relevant pieces of bark to draw from.

Kew Gardens has the best bark collection in London, and I became curious about what such a collection would entail. I emailed the herbarium at Kew and arranged an appointment for the following week.

At 10 AM on July 14th, I was escorted by a botanist to the bark anatomist’s lab in the Joseph Banks building at Kew. Although the tree anatomist was not in the lab, we examined a few slides of bark that, when stained red, resembled human anatomy slides—planting new seeds in my imagination. The botanist suggested I might prefer to visit the bark collection in another building and meet curator Mark Nesbitt. While Mark wasn’t there, we met Chris, who oversees Chinese medicinal plants and collections at Kew.

Chris had several boxes of interesting bark specimens in her office. I almost immediately found pieces that I felt would work for my project and arranged them on a desk. Until this point, I was still unsure whether my theory about Seghers’ landscapes would hold up, but I was pleased to discover that the bark indeed mimicked the landscape forms sufficiently to convince myself (if no one else) that Seghers could have drawn his landscapes from bark.

I left with NHM curator Mark Nesbitt’s email address, looking forward to accessing the bark storage area to continue drawing Seghers-inspired landscapes. While waiting for Mark’s response (he was on holiday), I became curious about the similarities between the forms in Seghers’ landscapes and lava formations, especially after my recent trip to the Galápagos Islands where I had drawn numerous pieces of broken lava as rocky landscapes.

I contacted the curator of the Rock Room at UCL and asked if I could draw some lava specimens while waiting to access the bark collection at Kew. She offered to loan me some lava specimens that I could take to my studio. I collected the specimens from the Rock Room and transported them in numerous boxes on a trolley through London’s Underground, delighted by the notion that I was couriering lava through underground tunnels—which somehow felt quite appropriate!

I found that a mixture of lava and bark worked particularly well and kept the drawing process interesting. By this time, the curator of the bark collection at Kew had emailed me and granted permission for me to draw from their collection.

The bark storage area was very cold and filled with tall metal cabinets containing bark specimens and artifacts made from bark. After browsing several aisles, I spotted some seeds that resembled space aliens and was overwhelmed by the variety of barks in all shapes and sizes. I was left alone to select specimens to draw, which I did with great pleasure, noting the catalog numbers on sheets of paper and carefully placing each specimen in archive boxes.

Before I left to draw my selections, Mark took time to show me some unusual artifacts in the storage area: Japanese decorative sheets of bark that looked just like leather (used in place of leather in accordance with Buddhist philosophy) and paintings of seeds and flowers painted on the wood of the trees they grew from—both scientific specimens and works of art, which resonated strongly with my own approach.

The bark curator at Kew introduced me to an archaeology research student, which led to arranging a meeting with Ulrike Sommer at UCL to discuss drawing and archaeology in current educational practice.

Drawing in the Natural Sciences

Introduction: Jerwood Artist in Residence 2010

After observing the judging process of the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010 and viewing thousands of fine art drawings, I realized that with each new batch of submissions, I was hoping to see drawings that are increasingly rare in the art world: representations of natural phenomena, maps, and plans. This sparked my curiosity about contemporary drawing practices beyond the art world, specifically within the Natural Sciences.

Some of my favourite drawings are 19th-century geological, astronomical, and zoological illustrations created to explore and understand their subjects. This led me to investigate whether drawing still plays a role in knowledge formation in the Natural Sciences at institutions like University College London, Kew Gardens, and The Natural History Museum.

I regularly draw from natural science collections at these institutions. Taking them as my starting point, I began an inquiry by contacting individual archaeologists, astronomers, botanists, geologists, and mycologists. Through these dialogues, I gained opportunities to visit their workplaces, interact with their collections, and ask specific questions about drawing within their respective fields.

I was excited to discover that each department still maintains some element of drawing within its curriculum. Even when not formally part of the written course, passionate individuals within these departments still believe in the importance of analogue drawing compared to other observational methods.

For this project, I selected historical drawings from each subject area that functioned as both works of art and science as inspiration. I aimed to substitute forms in these historical images with specimens from the collections bearing anatomical resemblances—for example, replacing R. Hooper’s anatomical drawing of a brain hematoma with the mineral hematite.

The works presented here are all drawn from direct observation of collections at Kew Gardens, UCL, the Natural History Museum, and UCL’s Observatory at Mill Hill. Each image reflects on the history of drawing within a particular branch of natural science, taking compositional inspiration from historical scientific illustrations.