Award-winning artist and writer Lauren Redniss, known for her innovative work in visual nonfiction, will speak Wednesday, March 22, at 8 p.m. in the Gund Gallery’s Community Foundation Theater. Her talk will focus on the relationship between art and science in her work, which explores science topics through graphic narrative.
Redniss, the winner of a 2016 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, takes a fresh approach to nonfiction storytelling, marrying prose with striking original artwork and typeface designs. Her most recent book, “Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future,” won the 2016 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Her previous book, “Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout,” was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award.
“Her work is both beautiful and probing. Like any good science journalist, she does extensive research and interviews, then goes home to her studio and sets work on stunning visual panels that combine the written word with the visual imagination,” said Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Professor of English, who invited Redniss to speak. “She’s found new ways to open up the subject of climate science for readers, and her work broadens both the range of readers who get interested in this important topic and the ways in which we can understand these ideas.”
Redniss has been a Guggenheim fellow and artist-in-residence at the American Museum of Natural History. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times. She currently teaches at Parsons, the New School for Design in New York City.
Creative connections among art and other disciplines also were the topic of a discussion Tuesday, March 21, with Professor of Mathematics Judy Holdener and Professor Emerita of Art Karen Snouffer. Their talk addressed the important intersections between the realms of math and art. Holdener and Snouffer currently are teaching a course titled “Math in the Studio.”
Redniss’ lecture is part of a series of events focused on science and writing. Other events include an April 12 talk by Lauret Savoy, whose writing connects natural and cultural histories, and an April 13 presentation by Andrea Wulf, author of the New York Times best-seller “The Invention of Nature.” Wulf is the winner of the inaugural James Wright Award for Nature Writing, given jointly by the Kenyon Review and the Nature Conservancy.
This event is sponsored by the NEH Distinguished Teaching Chair, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the President, the Edgerton Lectureship Fund, the Department of Studio Art, the Department of Chemistry, and the Kenyon Review.