Blue horizons

Reidar Stølevik creates untraditional pictures using methods from traditional chemistry. Photo: Rune Petter Ness

Playing with chemistry produces beautiful artwork – and may lead to a scientific reference work.

By Synnøve Ressem

Professor Reidar Evald Stølevik invites us to attend a different kind of chemistry class. He sprinkles powder from a collection of small jars and glass containers on to some plastic foil. The powder reacts with a drop of water, and a clear, deep-blue colour emerges. Then he makes a few movements with the plastic foil – which he does not bother to describe to us in detail – transfers the result to a white sheet of paper, and voila! Stølevik has created yet another of his unique works of art. Over time he has assembled stacks of these pictures – in every imaginable combination of shape and colour. The pictures, which he signs ‘Evald’, are well known far beyond his scholarly contacts at NTNU.

The professor has contributed to several exhibitions. He has also, among other activities, helped to illustrate books and has produced Christmas cards for Amnesty International. Now Stølevik is dreaming about compiling a reference work from his pictures, one which also can be used as a textbook within his subject – inorganic chemistry. This is because the game with colours and the search for artistic expression both begin with laboratory chemistry. His method is the same as the one used to demonstrate pollution in drinking water. To put it simply: you have a water sample, and you know nothing about its content. Then you add a substance with a known content. You can now decide, on the basis of the colour that is formed in the water, what the known substance has reacted with. This method is called precipitation.

The powder from a collection of small containers and glass jars is scattered over the plastic foil. Photo: Rune Petter Ness

The powder reacts with a drop of water,... Photo: Rune Petter Ness

The beautiful blue colour on the plastic foil was created from calciumferrahexa cyanide and iron sulphate. On its own, each individual chemical is almost colourless and anonymous, but when the substances react with one other, the chemist can recognize the new substance as iron cyanide complex. Painters and other colour experts may not be too bothered about the chemical formula, but they will recognize the colour as Prussian blue. Students create the most beautiful colours in their research laboratories at the Department of Chemistry. But when their tests are finished, they empty the contents of their test tubes down the drain. The students will probably recognize the colours if they show up at a later stage in their work, but it is more difficult to remember how they were originally created. It is for this reason that Stølevik is working to collect his pictures in a book, a book in which every page will carry chemical formulae describing in detail what has led to each different colour combination.

Stølevik has finished collecting his material, but he is dependent on finding collaborators in order to complete this project. The professor does not make a secret of the fact that he thoroughly enjoys himself when he plays around with colours and paper. The raw materials are cheap, easy to handle, and they can be fitted into a cigar box. The Stølevik method is perfectly suitable for artistic experiments in the kitchen. Not to mention enjoyable and entertaining teaching projects in schools.