In this online panel discussion, artists Angela Palmer and Alec Finlay, whose artworks feature in the current Injecting Hope exhibition, will explore artistic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and consider how art can help us gain new insights into and understandings of complex science and shared experiences.

Our panellists 
Scottish artist Angela Palmer’s sculpture 2020: The Sphere that Changed the World is a dramatically upscaled three-dimensional ‘drawing’ of the virus that causes COVID-19. As you walk around the sculpture, the sphere disappears and reemerges, echoing the elusive behaviour of the virus as it continues to spread around the world.

Scottish artist and poet Alec Finlay was commissioned to create Scotland’s Covid memorial. His multi-disciplinary artwork, I remember, features an installation of 40 oak tree supports in Pollok Country Park, each inspired by human poses of support, alongside a book of memories from across Scotland, published in paperback and audiobook. The audiobook is read by actor Robert Carlyle and features in the exhibition, Injecting Hope.

Sophie Goggins is Senior Curator of Biomedical Science at National Museums Scotland. Sophie is responsible for the medical and veterinary collections including her particular specialism, contemporary biomedicine.

The event will be hosted by Hassun El-Zafar, Director and CEO of Edinburgh Science. Throughout his career, Hassun has produced art and public engagement programmes that explore science, culture, community and technology.

Presented by the National Museum of Scotland

2020: the Sphere that Changed the World by Angela Palmer
Image: Science Museum Group. © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum