Artist Profile

Peta Jacobs materialises the invisible forces of quantum physics into kinetic, light-based artworks, revealing a fluid reality where perception, duality, and matter continuously shift and intertwine.

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Peta Jacobs: Materialising the Quantum

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Based in Bristol, UK, Peta Jacobs is a mixed-media artist whose work bridges the gap between scientific inquiry and aesthetic experience. Following a PhD titled Making Quantum Questions Material, her practice serves as a deep-dive into the paradoxical nature of light and the metaphysical questions it evokes.

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Artistic Philosophy
Inspired by the theories of quantum physicist David Bohm, Jacobs investigates themes of duality, entanglement, and wholeness. Her "thinking-through-making" approach challenges our perceptions of reality, exploring the delicate relationship between the observer and the observed.

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Method & Media
Jacobs appropriates scientific apparatus—such as half-silvered mirrors, prisms, and dichroic materials—to bring elusive quantum properties into physical form. The result is a series of kinetic, optical artworks where colours and forms are never fixed. As viewers shift their viewpoint, the art morphs and reveals hidden elements such as the radiant beauty hidden within white light.

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Career Highlights

• Solo Exhibitions:

  • Materialising Quantum Light (London, 2026),

  • Beyond Duality and Other Quantum Questions (Newlands House Gallery, 2025)

  • Quantum Light: Beyond a Crisis of Perception (Surrey, 2022).

• Public Commissions:

  • Beyond the Rainbow (The Lexicon, Bracknell)

  • Shadows of Distinction (Salts Mill, Yorkshire).

• Recognition:

  • Winner of the 31st Takifuji International Art Award (Japan).

ARTIST STATEMENT

 

The Architecture of Light

Peta Jacobs creates illusory mixed-media artworks inspired by the paradoxical world of quantum physics. Her practice, rooted in her PhD research, transforms complex scientific concepts into tangible, experiential forms.

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Unifying Polar Opposites
Central to Peta's work is the challenge of Western dualism. She seeks to unify binary oppositions—art and science, monochrome and multicolour, reality and illusion—without sacrificing the unique qualities of either. By integrating these "opposites," her art demonstrates the intrinsic interconnectedness of all things.

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The Quantum Language
Appropriating the apparatus of the two-slit experiment—such as half-silvered mirrors, prisms, and dichroic materials—Peta brings quantum peculiarities to life. Her work explores recurring motifs of:

• Wave/particle duality

• Superposition and entanglement

• Indeterminate boundaries

 

A Kinetic Experience
These artworks are inherently kinetic and participatory. While the 3D elements are transparent and the backgrounds are black and white, when seen obliquely they reveal a radiant, illusory spectrum of colour. These forms are never fixed; they shift and morph as the viewer moves, inviting a playful engagement with the hidden beauty found within white light.