The exhibition was organised by Hamilton at the ICA for the 1951 Festival of Britain, and reconstructed for the first time. Inspired by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s book On Growth and Form 1917, Hamilton brought together a range of organic and scientific materials, demonstrations, and photographs, making use of the most up-to-date imaging technologies. One of the ‘benefits’ of the exhibition, Hamilton wrote, was ‘the influence it may have upon design trends’. By using grid-based structures to look at form in nature, the exhibition challenged the apparent opposition between geometric and organic approaches to contemporary architecture and design. With its strange jumps of scale, Hamilton’s exhibition was infused with a Surrealist sensibility. Another link to Surrealism was the anomalous portrait photograph listed simply as ‘Head’ and provided courtesy of Jean Painlevé, an important Surrealist filmmaker.
Reconstruction led by Victoria Walsh with Elena Cripp.