Inner space: The evolution of the representation of the human body in Art and Science

Inner Space The evolution of the representation of the human body in art and science

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Fine Art (Hons)

Number of words in main body of dissertation: 8000

Marisa Satsia

Fine Art

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design

The University of Dundee

Scotland

January 2014

Contents

Section Pages

Acknowledgements … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …i

List of figures … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ii

Introduction … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .. 01

Chapter 1 – Early medicine/art dialogues … … … … … … … … … .. 06

- ‘Know Thyself’… … … … … … … … … … … … … … .11

- The human body as a ‘Microcosm’ … … .. … … … … 13

Chapter 2 - Scientific Discoveries and Imaging Techniques- Paradigms in

Art and Science … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ...16

- Post- Humanist Representations of the body… … ... …19

Chapter 3 – New Body … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .31

- Helen Chadwick- Viral Landscapes and Stilled lives 34

- Marta De Menezes-Functional Portraits … … … … ... 37

- Marc Quinn- Genomic Portrait… … … … … … … … ..40

- Chen Zhen Vs. Vesalius … … … … … … … … … … ..44

- Mona Hatoum- Foreign Body … … … … … … … … ..,46

- Katharine Dowson- Microcosm … … … … … … … ... 49

- Andrew Carnie- Magic ‘Dendrite’ Forest … … … … ... 51

Conclusion … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .53

i

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my family for all their encouragement they have given me

throughout the first semester of my Fourth year while I was writing my

dissertation. I wish to dedicate this dissertation to my father.

I would also like to thank my friends Amira Kremers and Emma Louise

Charalambous for all their help and insightful advice and conversations on the

subject. I would also like to thank my Academic Advisor Murdo MacDonald for

all his time and support.

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List of figures

Reference

Figure Page

1.1 1

Clemente Susini, (1790), Reclining female figure, wax sculpture [ONLINE]. Available at: http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2008/02/19/wombs-waxes-and-wonder-cabinet-1/ [Accessed 12 December 13].

1.2 2

Henry Gray, (1858), Muscles of the chest and front of the arm [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.bartleby.com/107/122.html [Accessed 12 December 13].

1.3 9

Joseph Towne, (c.1827-79), Section of the Thorax at the level of the heart [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.wellcomecollection.org/idoccache/0a43bc83-7c60-4629-b968-4a444f3e943d_1_0.jpg [Accessed 20 December 13].

1.4 11

Andreas Vesalius, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, (1555), [ONLINE], Available at: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/education/library/about/collections/historical-collections-archives/exhibits/anatomy-at-the-bleeding-edge.cfm Accessed 02 January 14].

1.5 13

Leonardo Da Vinci, (1508), The heart compare to a seed [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/919028/recto-the-heart-compared-to-a-seed-verso-the-vessels-of-liver-spleen [Accessed 29 December 13].

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1.6 14

Leonardo Da Vinci, (c.1490), Vitruvian Man [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/images/vitruvian.jpg [Accessed 02 January 14]

1.7 15

Frederik Ryusch, (1721), Opera Omnia [ONLINE], Available at: http://www.rarebook.com/84621/pages/web0019_jpg.html [Accessed 20 December 13].

2.1 20

Pablo Picasso, (1907) Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, Oil on canvas, 8' x 7' 8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm) [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.moma.org/explore/conservation/demoiselles/ [Accessed 11 December 13]

2.2 21

Marcel Duchamp, (1912), Nude Descending a Staircase No.2, Oil on canvas, 146 x89cm, [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.marcelduchamp.net/Nude_Descending_a_Staircase.php [Accessed 10 December 13].

2.3 23

Marcel Duchamp, (1946-66), wooden door, Étant donnés:: 1º la chute d'eau / 2º le gas d'éclairage [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.toutfait.com/issues/issue_3/Articles/Hoy/etantdon_en.html [Accessed 07 January 14].

2.4 23

Marcel Duchamp, (1946-66), Étant donnés:: 1º la chute d'eau / 2º le gas d'éclairage , view through the door of installation, [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.toutfait.com/issues/issue_3/Articles/Hoy/etantdon_en.html [Accessed 07 January 14].

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2.5 26

Judy Chicago, (1979), The dinner party, Ceramic installation [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.judychicago.com/gallery.php?name=The+Dinner+Party+Gallery [Accessed 27 December 13].

2.6 26

Cindy Sherman, (1979), Untitled Film Still #27, Gelatin silver print on paper [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sherman-untitled-film-still-27-p11517, [Accessed 20 December 13]

2.7 28

Marina Abramovic, (1974), Still from Rhythm 0 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://artactmagazine.ro/marina-abramovi-the-spiky-body.html [Accessed 27 December 13].

2.8 29

Jo Spence, (1982), The picture of health? [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.jospence.org/picture_of_health/p_o_h_4.html [Accessed 27 December 13].

3.1 34

Helen Chadwick, (1988-89), Viral Landscapes No.1, [c print photograph, powder coated steel, aluminium faced plywood, Perspex 120 x 300 x 5 cm] At: Marina Warner, Louisa Buck, David Allan Melior, Helen Chadwick, Mark Haaworth-Booth, Stilled Lives, (1996), Edinburgh: Portfolio Gallery, p.22-3

3.2 36

Helen Chadwick, 1996, Monstrance, [Iris print, Perspex, 100 x 80 x 8 cm], At: At: Marina Warner, Louisa Buck, David Allan Melior, Helen Chadwick, Mark Haaworth-Booth, Stilled Lives, (1996), Edinburgh: Portfolio Gallery, p.17

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3.3 37

Marta De Menezes, (2002), Functional Portrait: while drawing, Photography and functional magnetic resonance scans printed on canvas [ONLINE]. Available at: ttp://martademenezes.com/portfolio/functional-portraits/ [Accessed 11 October 13].

3.4 38

Marta De Menezes, (2002), Functional Portrait: Martin Kemp analysing a painting, Photography and functional magnetic resonance scans printed on canvas [ONLINE]. Available at: http://martademenezes.com/portfolio/functional-portraits/ [Accessed 11 October 13].

3.5 41

Marc Quinn, (2001), Sir John Edward Sulston, sample of DNA in agar jelly mounted in stainless steel, 5 in. x 3 3/8 in. (127 mm x 85 mm) [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw57555/Sir-John-Edward-Sulston [Accessed 04 December 13].

3.6 42

Marc Quinn, (1991), Self, Artist’s blood, Steel, Perspex, and Refrigeration equipment [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.marcquinn.com/work/view/subject/self%20(blood%20head)/#/4222 [Accessed 30 December 13].

3.7 43

Frederick Ruysch, (1710), Babe in bottle [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.cvltnation.com/the-embalming-jars-of-frederik-ruysch/ [Accessed 30 December 13].

3.8 44

Chen Zhen, (2000), Crystal Landscape of inner body [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.galleriacontinua.com/italiano/artista.html?id_artista=4&s=opere [Accessed 04 December 13].

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3.9 45

Andreas Vesalius De Humani Corporis Fabrica book ii, vii, (1555), Tools for Dissection [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/hc/journeys/book18.html [Accessed 28 November 13].

4.1 46

Mona Hatoum, (1994), Corps Etrangér, video installation [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.cvltnation.com/the-embalming-jars-of-frederik-ruysch/ [Accessed 29 December 13].

4.2 49

Katharine Dowson, (1992), Spine [resin, wax, silicon], At: (Kemp and Wallace, (2000). Spectacular Bodies: The art and science of the human body from Leonardo to Now. London: Hayward Gallery and the University of California Press, p.166).

4.3 49

Katharine Dowson, (1995), Examine [resin, wax, glass, magnifying glass], At:

(Kemp and Wallace, (2000). Spectacular Bodies: The art and science of the human body from Leonardo to Now. London: Hayward Gallery and the University of California Press, p.166

4.4 52

Andrew Carnie , (2002), Magic Forest [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.medinart.eu/works/andrew-carnie/ [Accessed 29 December 13].

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Introduction

Representations of the body have been a part of our visual culture since

prehistoric times as demonstrated by the discovery of the Lascaux cave

paintings. Cave men were the first natural philosophers manifested by their

outstanding observations of animals and nature in their drawings.

The representation of the anatomised body in the Renaissance imagery

depended on many factors such as philosophical and theological perceptions.

Artists of that era were pioneers in various disciplines ranging from engineering

to medicine, while scientists influenced visual culture through their discoveries

and experiments(Strosberg,1999).

In historical medical images, representations of the body range from the multi-

coloured anatomical wax sculptures of idealised women, known as anatomical

Venuses, of Clemente Susini (Fig.1.1) to sober woodcuts like in Henry Gray’s

famous Anatomy (Fig.1.2)(Kemp & Wallace,2000,p.32).

The inherent dialogue between art and science has been established in the

Middle Ages and has empowered both disciplines since then.

Fig.1.1: Reclining female figure, Clemente Susini, late 18th century, wax

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Fig.1.2: Muscles of the chest and front of the arm, Henry Gray’s Anatomy

descriptive and surgical, 1858

Wilson(2010,p.13) writes that collaboration between artists and anatomists

during the early Renaissance was fruitful and created meaningful intersections

between the two disciplines.

Eras in which art and science had a dynamic relationship have often been

described as landmark periods characterised by cultural

fertility(Wilson,2010,p.13). Artists and scientists reflected similar values, shared

theological and philosophical perceptions and used parallel tools and methods

throughout history(Strosberg,2001).

In fact, during the Renaissance artists and scientists participated in a culture

where they could not succeed if they were not equally interested in each other’s

work and this intersection was one of the core values of their

culture(Willson,2010,p.13). The term ‘natural philosopher’ was traditionally

designated for whoever investigated all aspects of nature and was used before

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the term ‘scientist’ (derived from the Greek word episteme) was according to

Strosberg coined in 1863. The archetypal example of an artist-scientist was, of

course, Leonardo Da-Vinci whose anatomical drawings were ground breaking

due to their accuracy and ability to convey the origins, morphology and

physiology of the inner workings of our body.

An essential tool for art was the notion of ‘deep seeing’, developed as a tool of

understanding natural phenomena. The study of anatomy, dissection, as well

the study of flow dynamics, enabled artists to improve their painting and

sculpting the human body. ‘Seeing’ was more than just looking at something as

it involved the attempt of gaining insight into basic forces and

principles(Wilson,2010,p13).

Drawing played an important role before photography was invented and artists

were essential to the work of anatomists, since they were the ones who

recorded significant discoveries with their drawings that were later studied by

medical students by reproducing the drawings as prints. The interdependence

of the two disciplines was evident in this professional exchange.

However, between 1880 and 1930, with the introduction of medical imaging

techniques such as x-rays, photography and microscopy, a whole new ‘visual’

access to the inner body was introduced(Kemp&Wallace,2000,p.16). With the

emergence of these technologies, the investigation of the inner workings of our

bodies was possible without having to sacrifice life itself. Within these five

decades both art and science underwent radical revolutions which introduced

new mediums of representation resulted in “paradigms” in art and science that

altered our view and experience of the world we live in. The subject of the

human body was re-introduced from a different perspective.

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Increasingly, artists moved towards a reliance on abstract non-figurative

approaches as a response to the technological revolution. In order to

understand and represent the essence of the new reality there was an evident

detachment from the naturalistic framework. Even when the human figure was

the prime subject in the works of artists, it was not depicted in the same way i.e.

anatomically or physiognomically correct, as evinced by Picasso’s

paintings(Kemp & Wallace, 2000,p.17).

In the last 30 years, however, there has been a trend towards the resurgence of

the representation of the body by artists and a rediscovery of the former

collaboration between artists and scientists. Even though different mediums are

being used incorporating the latest technology available, we have seen the re-

emergence of the microcosmical notions of the body and different manner of

“deep seeing”.

The purpose of this dissertation is to show that boundaries between the two

disciplines have always been non-existent. At a time, with the emergence of

technological innovation, there had been a divergence between the two

disciplines, but as seen by the work of contemporary artists there is a

momentum towards the convergence that existed in the past.

In Chapter 1 the aim is to describe how the collaboration of artists and

anatomists during the Renaissance has influenced the representation of the

human body in anatomical depictions. Artists’ input in medical imagery affected

by a sense of beauty, aesthetics and craftsmanship was significant to the point

where historical anatomical imagery was misplaced.

Furthermore, in Chapter 2 I will discuss how emerging technology has caused a

divergence between the two disciplines and how it affected the representation

of the human body in both art and science.

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In Chapter 3 entitled ‘New Body’, the aim is to demonstrate that the

collaboration between artists and scientists has reached a point of the re-

emergence of some philosophical ideas from the past. The subject of the

human body is re-introduced with the use of radical imaging techniques in the

works of artists such as Helen Chadwick and others.

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1

Early medicine/art dialogues

The emergence of modern science in the Renaissance rests on a range of

inquiries defined by visual practice. Most of Copernicus, Galileo’s and Harvey’s

work and their fellow pioneering natural philosophers work had to do with the

logic of their arguments, the validity of their factual existence and the precision

of their geometry and mathematics. The factual knowledge that they sought to

create had a strong visual component in geometrical perspective, in visual parts

of astronomy, anatomy and various parts of natural history(Ede,2000,p.71).

During the Renaissance, artists and scientists were a part of the same

intellectual sphere and through interdisciplinary exchange they have benefited

from each other particularly in the areas of anatomy, geometrical perspective,

and natural history such as the observational and descriptive parts of botany,

entomology and parts of modern zoology, and geology. These are the clusters

of science that emerged in the Renaissance, which were commonly grouped

under the term ‘natural history’(Ede,2000,p.70).

Back in the early 15th century questions about the nature of life were a part of a

larger cultural question that did not only belong to scientists. Both artists and

scientists were equally interested in the nature of life and investigated the form

and function of all natural objects and natural phenomena.

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Artist’s training included engineering and anatomy and the study of flow

dynamics and flight mechanics enabled them to paint water and birds.

Investigations of anatomy and dissection enabled them to improve at sculpting

and painting of the human form by developing Leonardo's notion of 'deep

seeing'(Wilson,2010,p.13).

In the field of anatomy, anatomists and artists were pioneers and both groups

benefited through their interdisciplinary exchange. The fascination and vision of

artists and anatomists was intimately united because of seeking the basic

knowledge of the human body. Both artists and anatomists were dissecting

cadavers to discover how the human body operates. The anatomical

illustrations made by the artists were then recreated into prints and studied by

medical students. These investigations were the basis of modern medical

science(Rifkin,2006,p.6).

The interdisciplinary exchange between artists and anatomists has eroded

disciplinary boundaries Kemp and Wallace(2000,p.11) have pointed out the

immediate grounds for this misplacement:

i) The people who created these medical illustrations were trained artists:

painters and sculptors. These artists promoted their artistic practice outside

the circle of medical imagery. The level of refinement of the representations

delivered by those artists was so extraordinary that contemporary medical

practice had no means to intervene.

ii) The chimera that was associated with the world of medicine occupied

different cultural territories from today’s professional mainstream. The

purpose of anatomical images from the period of Renaissance to the

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nineteenth century had to do with aesthetics and theological

perceptions.

iii) In Renaissance theorists and avant-garde artists insisted that it was

necessary for every artist to obtain an understanding of the body as a

functional system of motion and emotion. This was a key component

in the evolution of naturalistic rendering. Artists did not only have

knowledge on the muscular and skeletal mechanisms but also

understand the aspects of the human constitution that affected the

formation of character and emotional expression.

Nowadays, it is hard to define whether a historical image or sculpture that

conveys anatomical information but also embodies aesthetic, decorative, and

narrative elements comes from a scientific or an artistic background. This

crossbreeding phenomenon of interdisciplinary exchange between artists and

scientists in the Renaissance generated a new 'style' for the representation of

the human body.

Joseph Towne’s wax sculpture ‘Section of the Thorax at the Level of the Heart’

c.1827-79 (Fig.1.3), is considered to be a hyper realistic 'medical' image.

His coloured wax model along with all comparable anatomical representations

in three and two dimensions are most likely to be found in medical museums,

particularly the ones in Italy that devoted to anatomia normale(Kemp &

Wallace,2000,p.12).

However, Towne has defined his profession as a ‘sculptor’ and he entered the

field of anatomical modelling with a small model of a skeleton made in 1826 for

Guy’s hospital and also exhibited his wax sculptures regularly at the Royal

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Fig. 1.3: Joseph Towne, Section of the Thorax at the level of the heart, c.1827-79, Wax sculpture

academy. He was also the hospital’s specialist modeller for fifty-three

years(Kemp & Wallace,2000,p.12).

The example of the union of artists and anatomists encouraged more unions in

science and technology, from botany to engineering. An example of the artist-

anatomist union was Andreas Vesalius with his book De Humani Corporis

Fabrica of 1543. Jan Stephan Van Calcar, a Netherlandish artist who had been

studying in Titian’s Venetian studio, drew Vesalius’s book (Kemp &

Wallace,2000,p.13). More examples is Albinus and the artist Jan Wandelaar in

Albinus’s Tabulae Sceleti et Muscolorum Corporis Humani and William Hunter’s

and Jan Van Rymsdyck’s in Anatomia Uteri Humani Gravidi.

Having mentioned examples of collaborations between artists and anatomists, it

is important to mention that the artist-anatomist Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519),

created the most precise anatomical drawings that have contributed both to art

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and science, Leonardo was the most innovative thinker of his time and he was

also a philosopher, an engineer, an inventor and a mathematician.

Through his knowledge, his ‘’deep seeing’’, and empirical observations he

achieved to portray different dimensions of the self in his painting. Leonardo's

drawings and writings were of an incredible high standard and full of discoveries

that no one else has discovered until two centuries after demonstrating that he

was ahead of his time.

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1.2

‘Know thyself’

The representation of the human body in Renaissance was mainly influenced

by theological and philosophical perceptions. The anatomised body was the

epitome of the tag ‘Know Thyself’, or γνῶθι σεαυτόν, in Greek. It justified the

dissections by artists and anatomists in 17th century Holland

(Kemp&Wallace,2000,p14). Their duty was to explore every single element of

the inner and outer self, layer by layer. Natural philosophers came to the

conclusion that the exposition of the physical

world (dissection) had a potential value ‘worth

a thousand words’.

‘‘The framework of this assumption was based

on a philosophical stance towards visible

nature that saw God’s created order as

designed for human understanding’’, Kemp

and Wallace(2000,p.13) write.

Fig.1.4: Andreas Vesalius (1514-64),

Drawing from De Humani Corporis fabrica, 2nd folio edition, 1555, p.230

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The collaboration between artists and anatomists resulted in spectacular

anatomical drawings and sculptures. Through this collaboration, the anatomised

body was involved in a series of narratives, and it appeared as an animated

heroic posing in front of extraordinary landscapes in Vesalius’ anatomical

illustrations(Fig. 1.4). Rifkin writes, both physicians and artists, worked towards

preserving life but it was said that an artist could even revive the dead(Rifkin,

2006,p.7).

In the drawings of the anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius(1514-64), the

anatomised human body was manifested with such refinement. In his book De

Humani Corporis Fabrica(1543), he formed narratives and gave visual proofs in

order to remind us of our own mortality, allowing us to empathise with the body

in the picture.

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1.3

The metaphor of the human body as a ‘Microcosm’

During mid-fifteen-century in Florence (‘Humanist era’) Roman sculpture and

writings were re-discovered. Another ancient philosophy, that had re-emerged,

as a visual term at that time, was the metaphor of the human body as a

Microcosm.

This metaphor was used for the understanding of the human organism as a

notion of a ‘‘lesser world’, mirroring the wider notion of the ‘Macrocosm’ in its

forms and functions’’(Kemp, 2000,p.7).

Some examples of the ‘Microcosmic’

metaphor were Leonardo’s portrayal of

the heart as a seed, the ‘Vitruvian man’

and Frederick Ruysch’s ‘Opera Omnia’

from his book Theasurus Anatomicus.

Leonardo used botanical analogies to

describe the morphology (form) and

physiology (function) of the inner working

of our bodies.

Fig. 1.5: The heart compared to a seed, Leonardo Da Vinci, c.1508

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For example, he compared the heart to a seed in order to describe how the

veins and arteries in the heart are formed in isolation(Fig.1.5).

He also created a machine-like analogy to indicate how the blood is pumped

from the heart to the rest of the body.

His 'Vitruvian man', (Fig 1.6) dated

c.1490, was as an archetype for the

definition of the human body’s

proportions. His definition of the human

body was based on mathematical

relationships and this was considered

as the foundations for the translation of

the figure in artistic

representation(Marani,2000,p.219).

Fig. 1.6: Vitruvian man, Leonardo Da Vinci, c.1490

Leonardo sought to develop the universal rules of human proportions, which

were based on ‘empirical’ observation but also on underlying laws of harmony

and beauty. Empirical observation was provided by experience or

evidence(Marani,2000,p.219).The square and circle, surrounding Leonardo’s

Vitruvian man, acts like a symbol for the cosmos and the earth and the man at

the centre indicate macro and micro cosmos analogies with the man acting as

the Microcosmos, in the centre of the universe(Strosberg,2001,p.18).

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Another, more theatrical version of microcosmic analogies is given in Ruysch’s

‘Opera Omnia’(1721)(Fig.1.7). Ruysch’s representation of grieving infant

skeletons, wiping their tears onto something that almost looks like flesh with

veins on them, surrounded by landscape of vessels that look like trees and

deconstructed skeletons and bodily stones. The inner workings of the body are

mirroring in its forms and functions

elements in nature.

Adding to the discussion of main

theological and philosophical

perceptions behind anatomical

drawing above, the styles of the

portrayal of the dissected human

body were replaced by the styles of

anatomical rendering.

Fig.1.7: Opera Omnia, Frederik Ruysch, 1721

Gray’s unstylish figures, created a technical ‘non-style’ that marked the

divergence between the way artists exploited their style and techniques to

depict the body in a more communicative way and the way that anatomists

attempted to give absolute priority to the factual information they wished to

expose (Kemp & Wallace, 2000,p.32).

With new technologies in printmaking, like mezzotint, emerging, the depictions

of the human body will vary. Eventually, artists’ deep seeing was replaced by

machines or instruments for ‘seeing’. How will the understanding and depiction

of the human body alter, after the invention of imaging technologies?

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2

Scientific discoveries and imaging technologies-

Paradigms in art and science

Leonardo Da Vinci was a supreme visualiser. He was the only known artist-

anatomist that managed to 'capture' and 'isolate' parts of the body with his

drawing techniques until the invention of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

and x-rays. Essentially, Leonardo's ‘deep seeing’ and thinking, alongside with

his three-dimensional mental modelling, enabled him to visualise and

understand the body in a way that no one else did (Kemp, 2004,p.49). His

aspiration was to allow us to gain a true knowledge of the form and function of

all parts of the human body. He achieved this by creating microcosmical visual

analogies; he compared the workings of the human body to roots, seeds, and a

broad variety of natural things. In his diagrams he depicts the body not only in

its solid form but also often with transparent outlines, ‘exploded’ using his

isolation techniques. He precociously mastered every technique that was used

in anatomical illustration up to the 19th century (Kemp, 2004,p.96).

According to scientific studies, we see the world by perceiving abstract patterns.

We form concepts, take in signals and interpret them. In the discipline of

science itself, concepts are tested through visual, behavioural or mathematical

pattern recognition. New patterns suggest new concepts. Scientists, like artists

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need to see or visualise ideas in order to understand phenomena (Ede,

2000,p21).

In order to see, they use visual instruments, or machines that overcome the

natural limitations of the unaided human eye. Microscopes and telescopes

became the tools that enabled scientists to extent the visual reach of science in

a way that previously unimagined phenomena and realms of the very large and

very small, now become visible. The impact of these instruments had the same

impact as the precise skill of engravers, printers and publishers, and turned the

discoveries of science into public images that became icons for the whole

enterprise of visual science (Ede, 2000,p.71). Scientific images have become

an inseparable part of our everyday visual culture.

These instruments replaced the skills of artists, their empirical observations and

their senses, leading to scepticism. To what extend do we trust the instrumental

extension of the human sight? (Ede, 2000,p.72)

According to Kemp and Wallace, new techniques in art and design, such as the

invention of photography, raised the same scepticism. They served the medical

science most prominently by giving a direct representation of the arrangement

of dissections. Ede (2000,p.72) adds that from the 19th century onwards,

photographic procedures and technical innovations did not only redefine, but

were destined to revolutionise the visual sciences and the arts.

With the invention of microscopy becoming more conspicuous and when x-rays

where invented in 1895 by Rontgen, a whole new set of eyes were adopted. A

new world of ‘visual’ access to the inner body was introduced (Kemp & Wallace,

2001,p.18).

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The introduction of imaging techniques initiated the quest for truth for artists and

medical researchers. Both groups were mutually searching for different levels of

realities that were more abstract, not only within or under the surface of things.

Scientific developments and discoveries challenge us and re-shape our view of

reality. As pointed out by the philosopher Thomas Kuhn in the 70’s, ‘scientific

discovery moves forward through radical change or ‘paradigm shifts’. New

discoveries replace existing theories and stimulate the revision of our existence.

For example, a significant breakthrough was Darwin’s Origin of Species that

proved that human beings evolved through the evolution of other species. His

discovery has profoundly altered our views of the humankind.

If new discoveries alter our experiences and the way we view the world it is not

a coincidence that divergence in art and science occurred simultaneously. The

invention of imaging techniques altered our views on natural phenomena and

scientific discoveries stimulating the revision of our existence and of our

understanding of the human body.

‘‘20th century technology has given us an alternative understanding of our

physical selves by revealing our internal selves as ‘functioning and intact

systems’, without having to sacrifice life itself’’, Sally O’Reilly adds (2009,p.130).

With the invention of the microscope and x-rays in the early 19th and 20th

century, new approaches in art marked the divergence from the naturalistic

framework with fresh styles interpreting innovative realities. Art established

conceptual links with science; the more science progressed, the more artists

rebelled (Strosberg, 2001,p.29).

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2.1

Post-humanist representations of the body

The centrality of the human image is more simplistic and less historically

specific nowadays. Humanist themes remained in Western art from the

Renaissance to the mid- nineteenth century. In 1880, the centre of attention in

avant-garde art shifted from the broad spectrum of Naturalism. Representations

of the human body disappeared in Modernism, although they re-emerged in

Feminist, Conceptual and Performance Art, in the 1960's(Kemp& Wallace,

2000,p.149).

Sian Ede (2000,p.21) in Strange and Charmed: Science and the Contemporary

Visual Arts, referred to the two main styles running through twentieth century art

as:

‘‘…A non-representational, abstract and subliminal way of seeing and making

work- from Picasso, through to abstract expressionism and minimalism- and the

conceptual inheritance popularly invoked in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp, where

the ideas predominate- usually consciously and intellectually distorted and

subverted’’.

An example of a new style in painting, which was perhaps influenced by

Einstein’s theory of relativity, was Picasso’s early cubist figure paintings.

Einstein’s theory rejected the Newtonian ideas, ‘suggesting that time and space

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exist as a continuum and can only be experienced relative to each other’

(Heartney,2001,p.7). An altered sense of reality’s stability was reflected in Art

through paradigms.

As Picasso said: ‘’In the old days, pictures went forward towards completion by

stages. Every day brought something new. In my case, a picture is a sum of

destructions’’(cited in Strosberg,2001,p.163).

Fig.2.1: Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, Pablo Picasso, 1907, Oil on

canvas

In his painting of ‘Les Demoiselles D’Avignon’, (Fig.2.1) the human figure

appears simplified and primitive. The treatment of space, lack of perspective,

colouristic logic and the de-personalisation of the figures through the adoption

of masks, marked new developments in painting(Cooper,1971,pp.20-22). For

the first time a new style was generated, different to anything else the world had

ever seen.

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In Duchamp’s early work, ‘Nude Descending a staircase No. 2’, 1912, the

representation of reality was rejected and the figure was transformed into a

symbolic and powerful machine destroying everything in its way(Fig.2.2). His

‘nude’ was perceived by the Salon Des Independants as ironical, revolutionary,

anti- cubist and Futuristic. His activity in Cubism lasted for only a year. He then

turned to Dadaism in which his work favoured mechanical concepts

(Cooper,1971,pp.124-25).

Fig.2.2: Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 , Marcel Duchamp, 1912, Oil on

canvas

Janis Mink(2004,p.27) wrote:

‘‘The figure hardly looked nude because it hardly looked human’’.

Duchamp’s Nude was a more radical and mechanical version of his earlier

figure paintings. However, Duchamp withdrew from painting circles after 1912

and pursued subjects like mathematics and physics. At that time, major

discoveries were made that marked the evolution of scientific thought; science

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was under a period of crisis. The major influence on Duchamp’s development

was the mathematician Henry Poincare. The conceptual changes that the

discovery of x-rays and the phenomenon of radioactivity brought were

described in his theoretical books(Mink,2004,p.43).

The historian Herbert Molderings pointed out the importance of Poincare’s

influence in Duchamp’s art(cited in Mink, 2004, p.43): ‘‘The philosophy of

agnosticism, which will predominate in modern science, there, where the

masses of humanity supposed it to consist of firm insights, will form the crux of

Duchamp’s new art’’.

Duchamp’s “Readymades” embodied the elimination of the individual. The

readymade that bared the biggest metaphor was the ‘Fountain’. He took

readymade everyday objects and turned them into bearers of new significant

meanings and uses.

His last work was ‘Etant Donnes’: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’eclairage (1946-

66), an enigmatic installation of a set of wooden doors (Fig.2.3) surrounded by

brickwork. The wooden doors had two tiny holes in them and when you looked

through, a ‘peep show’ unravelled before your eyes(Fig.2.4).

Mink(2004,p.89) writes: ‘’Etant Donnes’ is a diorama whose subject matter often

results in it being compared to a peep-show. However, it has just as much in

common with a lifelike exhibit in natural history museum where a deceased

wildlife specimen is stuffed and shown in a three-dimensional set-up of its

natural surrounding before a painted background’’.

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Fig.2.3 and 2.4: Marcel Duchamp, Etant Donnes’: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le

gaz d’eclairage (1946-66)

In Etant Donnes’, a lifeless stripped body of a woman is lying in a bush. Her

identity is disguised by hair falling across her face. Her legs are spread apart

but her genitals are distorted and her left leg appears swollen. The body

appears sexless and abused. She lies there dead but she is still holding the gas

lamp in her left hand.

‘‘…In a way, the abandoned woman of Etant Donnes’ is Duchamp as an empty

bed, or alternatively, Rrose (Selavy, his female alter ego), ‘the femaleness he

wanted to reach’’(cited in Mink,2004,p.93).

Duchamp’s art was and still is a challenge. He was one of the artists who

reacted most radically to the changes by the industrial revolution and evidently

this was seen in his work.

Greenberg’s theory on modernism supported the universality of forms in art.

However, the experiences and creations of women, especially those of non-

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white and non-western women in art, were left out from this definition of

universality. The definition of the ‘Other’ was given to the women that were

excluded from this universality.

Heartney(2001,p.51) writes:

‘’… The ‘Other’ must operate as a saboteur, continually undermining the effort to

install any group of philosophy as the privileged purveyor of truth and reality’’.

The concept of the physical self re-appeared in the 1960’s and 70’s with

Feminist art. It was quite challenging for an artist to refer to the female body.

Traditionally most doctors by trade were male. The human body was a part of a

larger socio-political re-appropriation; women took control of their lives, their

sexuality and their reproductive functions. This created a huge debate on the

topic of abortions and contraception(Wallace,2000,pp.152-53).

In addition, feminist artists were concerned with the fact that women were

excluded from major exhibitions which resulted in the marginalisation of women

from history(Heartney,2001,p.52). In art-historian’s Linda Nochlin’s essay in

1971 on ‘Why have there been no great women artists’, Nochlin chose to focus

on the institutional, educational and economic factors that had prevented

women from being as successful as male artists. Nochlin pointed out that new

questions had to be asked from feminists, and the model for art-historical

knowledge had to be redefined(cited in Heartney, 2001, p.52).

In the 1970’s women artists begun to explore the differences in female and male

experiences and how these differences affected their approach to

art(Heartney,2001,p.52). Feministic critic Lucy (cited in Heartney, 2001,p.52)

had noticed a recurring motif in women’s artwork. She believed that these

motifs suggested a female sensibility. Abstracted sexuality was inherent in

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circles, domes, eggs, spheres and all sorts of biomorphic shapes. She also

pointed out a fixation with the body or body-like materials. All these facts, lead

to the conclusion that ‘such dissimilarities reflected the different way in which

women organise their experience in the world’.

What she described has come to be known as First wave feminism. Women

revealed what was considered a forbidden territory, represented by vaginal

imagery and menstrual blood, and were preoccupied with ‘low’ art forms or

‘women’s work’ like embroidery and ceramics. From that time, women were

putting exhibitions together and forming co-operative

galleries(Heartney,2001,p.53).

Wallace (2000,p.153) points out the work of the American artist, Judy Chicago,

‘The Dinner Party’, 1974,1979(Fig.2.5), an installation that lavishly depicted

female genitalia on colourful ceramic plates. Each plate was dedicated to a

creative woman in history, and according to their area of expertise each plate

had a floral allegory. The dinner party celebrates important women in history,

and commemorates them as goddesses.

Wallace(2000,p.153) writes:

‘’The identification of each illustrious woman with a ceramic plate portraying

female genitalia clearly denoted that part of the body which distinguishes the

two sexes and constitutes one of the most ingrained taboos in our society. It

may be recalled that women only featured in most of the anatomical ‘picture-

books’ when their reproductive organs needed to be portrayed’’.

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Fig.2.5: The dinner Party, Judy Chicago, 1979, Ceramic installation

Postmodern feminists insisted that their aim was not provide positive images of

female experience but to reveal the ways in which our ideas of womanhood and

femininity are socially constructed. The idea of femininity as masquerade was

pursued as ‘’a set of poses adopted by women in order to conform to societal

expectations about women-hood’’(Heartney,2001,p.53).

Fig. 2.6: Untitled Film Still #27, Cindy Sherman, 1979, gelatin silver print

on paper

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Cindy Sherman was one of the female artists that exposed the idea of femininity

as masquerade. Feminist theorists embraced her Untitled Film stills from 1978.

Sherman had the ability to adopt different poses or personas, which empowered

her as a woman(Fig.2.6). Heartney(2001,p.57) writes: ‘’Her untitled film stills

from 1978 are a set of black and white photographs in which Sherman

costumed herself to suggest the female types available in Hollywood movies of

her childhood. These range from femme fatale, rural naïf, career girl, fallen

woman to wide- eyed innocent’’.

Sherman has confessed that her staged photographs are inspired by her

childhood games of playing dress-up. Female fantasy played a huge role in

Sherman’s work(Heartney,2001,p.57).

Wallace(2001,p.153-54) adds that the human body has become the medium

used in performance art, Body art (usually through photography) and film. A

great deal of feminist art that blossomed in the 70’s found its expression in the

representation of the human body. For example, Otto Muhl and the Viennese

actionists were involved in performances that demanded extreme physical

endurance, and concentrated on the emotive and expressive nature of the

human body. In Malcolm Green’s ‘writings of the Viennese actionists’ he

mentions Hermann Nitsch’s comment:

"Vienna Actionism never was a group. A number of artists reacted to particular

situations that they all encountered, within a particular time period, and with

similar means and results."

Other artists, have used their body to inflict cuts and wounds on themselves.

These kinds of performances were documented with film and photography ‘in a

visual language akin to popular culture’, Wallace(2000,p.154) adds.

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Fig.2.7: Still from Rhythm 0, Marina Abramovic, 1974, performance

Marina Abramovic’s ‘Rhythm O’ performance (1974) was one of her most

extreme performances. It demonstrated that human nature and behaviour is not

what we think it is, and that every one defines their own limits(Fig.2.7).

Abramovic said: ‘’ I pushed my body to the limits…I wanted to see how far the

public can go…I put on the table 72 objects with the instructions: ‘I am an

object, you can do whatever you want to do with me and I will take all

responsibility for six hours’’.

Abramovic took the risk. She wanted to see how the public would use the

objects on the table. Some kissed her and gave her the rose, but things

changed rapidly. The public went wild. Some cut her clothes and stripped her

down, cutting her neck. Someone even tried to shoot her with a gun.

The French artist Orlan was another artist that used her body as her medium in

her art. In her official website she states her manifesto of ‘Carnal’ art:

‘‘Carnal Art is self-portraiture in the classical sense, but realised through the

possibility of technology. It swings between defiguration and refiguration. Its

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inscription in the flesh is a function of our age. The body has become a

“modified ready-made”, no longer seen as the ideal it once represented; the

body is not anymore this ideal ready-made it was satisfying to sign’’.

She underwent cosmetic surgeries in order to transform her face and body and

she documented them with the aid of photography. Orlan wrote that she was

not interested in the result of the cosmetic surgery but ‘’In the process of

surgery, the spectacle and discourse of the modified body which has become

the place of a public debate’’.

Fig.2.8: ‘The picture of Health?’, 1982-86, Jo Spence and Terry Dennett

According to Wallace(2000,p.154), photography was used by many

phrenologists, psychologists and criminologists in the 70’s in order to give a

more distanced, distorted, debased, deconstructed and fragmented view of the

human body. Photography was used to document physical abnormalities. For

example, photographer Jo Spence monitored and documented the changes in

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her body brought by breast cancer and mastectomy in her work ‘The picture of

Health?’ (1982-86)(Fig.2.8).

Such visual commentaries were common with the advent of manmade diseases

in the 1980’s and 90’s. For example, Helen Chadwick’s Viral landscapes

emphasize the social and personal consequences of viruses(see chapter 3).

She was also a resident artist at the King’s college hospital, where she

produced her final work, based on in vitro fertilisation.

Art and science organisations and academic institutions in England and

Australia, such as the Wellcome Trust, the Art’s catalyst, the Gulbenkian

Foundation and the programme Symbiotica, have enabled artists to research

themes that erode boundaries between the two disciplines.

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3

New Body

According to Kemp and Wallace(2000,p.18),

‘'The relationship between artists and scientists in the 21st century is definitely

not the same as in Renaissance period. Artists were not alien visitors to

scientific institutions, but natural participants in the formation of the imagery that

was visible in the scientific site'’.

However, a significant number of contemporary artists were influenced by

elements of human biology or have been introduced to new media such as

medical imaging technologies. These visual technologies have become

materials of art for the contemporary artists, giving rise to new radical artistic

representations and visualisations of the human body.

In the past thirty years, artists have re-opened the dialogue between the modes

of representation of the body and medical imagery, re-introducing the subject of

the human body in a manner in which their works exudes qualities that are

astonishing enough to be compared with the supreme craftsmanship and

refinement of the past(Kemp & Wallace,2000,p.18).

Just like artists in the past, these contemporary artists see no boundaries. They

pursue universal, cultural questions that break the disciplinary boundaries,

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explore what possibilities modern science can offer to their practice and

collaborate with medical researchers and scientists.

Science raises questions of ‘how’, while art investigates the reasons ‘why’. Art

accepts and emphasises the ambiguities that science tries to remove by

working towards specific objectives in the form of subjective experiences.

Some artists choose to engage with science and create images that suggest

alternative ways of seeing and reflect human experience. Sian Ede mentions in

‘Art and Science’(2005,p.4), the words of biologist Stephen Jay Gould in which

he states scientific images to be ‘ loci for modes of thought’. According to Gould,

for an artist, the ‘thought’ is related to the experience of what it feels like to be

human, and this experience has multiple interpretations.

Andrea Duncan(cited in Ede,2005,p.135), an artist and critic pointed out:

Hatoum’s endocopies and coloscopies, Orlan’s interventional surgeries, and the

cellular manipulations of in vitro fertilisations in Helen Chadwick’s work have

enabled these artists ‘to reconfigure feminist perspectives on notions of well-

being, glamour and fertility with the act of taking control of their own

corporalities’ with the use of radical scanning techniques.

My aim is to investigate the concepts of human and molecular biology in the

work of contemporary artists, and discuss how radical imaging techniques have

enabled them to project their experiences from a different perspective, creating

a new breed or perhaps a new revolutionary bio/art movement. The works of

some contemporary artists manifest extensions of our physical self that convey

not only physiognomical information, but also convey physiological and

morphological aspects of our inner selves. Some other artists works such as

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Andrew Carnie’s and Katherine Dowson’s, speculate microcosmical

philosophies of the past.

The invention of radical imaging technologies and paradigms have altered our

understanding of the human body and how we view the world, and have raised

new manifestations of the human body in art. However, medical imaging

techniques such as x-rays, infrasound and functional magnetic resonance

imaging can alienate and objectify the human body making it hard for us to

empathise with it. In a functional magnetic resonance brain scan, the brain

activity appears as a red dot. How can a symbol convey human experience?

Nowadays we can access our internal workings with the aid of technology

without having to literally sacrifice our lives. Reactions in the brain that trigger

emotions appear as symbols. In the Renaissance, only dead bodies could be

dissected. In the 21st century the human body is virtually dissected, on

computer screens, enabling us to access any part of the anatomised body at

any time.

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Helen Chadwick- Viral Landscapes and Stilled lives

In the early 80’s Helen Chadwick’s work has shifted away from using her body

to explore sexual and cultural boundaries. She found ways to create work

through a ‘negotiation’ between personal and public, away from the overt use of

performance. She turned away from the depiction of the body and towards

representations of the body’s interior, as the means for her exploration of the

self(Sladen,2004,p.20).

In her ‘Viral Landscapes’ (1988-89) she incorporated the images of cells of her

own cervix, vagina, mouth and ear, which she overlaid on landscape images.

She was inspired by her visit in the coast of Pembrokeshire in Wales. Each of

the five photographs contained a different photograph of the county’s

shoreline(Sladen, 2004,p.20).

Fig.3.1: Viral Landscapes, Helen Chadwick, 1988-89, C print

photograph, powder coated steel, Aluminium faced plywood,

Perspex 120 x 300 x 5 cm

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Chadwick used computer- imaging technology to merge the photographs of the

fragmented cellular imagery of her body according to patterns that she created

by pouring paint onto the sea and dragging a canvas through the waves.

Chadwick asserts, ‘‘we have become, a viral condition in the landscape’’. This

dictates her interest in the relation between the individual and the world, which

was a metaphor for the relation between the host and the virus. She elaborates

a theory of self, which celebrates the invasion and dissolution of the self by the

other, an encounter, which she describes as ‘morally neutral’(cited in

Sladen,Horlock,Martischnig,2004,p.21).

‘’For here in a scenario of mutual being the ideals of purity, and thus contagion,

no longer apply… the living integrates with the other in an infinite continuity of

matter, and welcomes difference not as damage, but as potential’’(Chadwick’s

commentary on ‘Viral Landscapes’ cited in Sladen, Horlock,

Martischnig,2004,p.21).

Her cellular fragments merge beautifully with the landscapes, creating a

dialogue between them thus making it impossible to distinguish the host

between the parasite. This confirms the notion of ourselves becoming

unidentified within the world (parasite). A parasite enters the host (ourselves),

creating a parasitic relationship that only the parasite can benefit from. She

uses landscapes as symbols that suggest the individual’s context in the

world(Sladen,2004,p.22).

In her final work, Unnatural selection series (1996), Chadwick got involved with

the in vitro fertilisation programme, in King’s College Hospital assisted

conception unit. She had the permission to use fertilised embryos that she

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manipulated herself before terminating their existence through suspension in

formalin(Duncan,2000,p.153) .

In order for Chadwick to use these embryos, she had to learn how to use the

glass suction pipette and from the discarded eggs she created a series of photo

pieces such as the Opal, Monstrance and Nebula. In ‘Monstrance’, 1996,

photographs of the discarded embryos were fixed in the middle of a Perspex

structure that recalls the form and the purpose of a Victorian mourning brooch.

Andrea Duncan(cited in Ede, 2000,p.153)adds:

‘’…Monstrance with its religious reference to the display of the body of the

Christ during the Mass, touches upon grief and upon those lost lives which had

almost become something or someone.’’

‘Monstrance’ displays the fragility of

embryos, reminiscent of Ruysch’s Babes in

bottles, but in a cellular level. Formalin,

made them indivisible, turning them into a

‘stilled life’.

Fig.3.2: Monstrance, Helen Chadwick, 1996, Iris print on Perspex

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Marta De Menezes- 'Functional Portraits'

Artist Marta De Menezes explores the possibilities that modern biology offers

contemporary artists. She has been developing the use of biology and

biotechnology as new art media by conducting her practice in research

laboratories. In her website she writes about her work: ''I have been trying not to

only to portrait the recent advances of biological sciences, but to incorporate

biological material as a way to convey an artistic discourse not possible with a

different medium; DNA, proteins and cells offer an opportunity to explore novel

ways of representation and communication''.

In her 'Functional portraits' as she calls them, she uses functional magnetic

resonance scans of the brain to investigate the brain activity while

Fig.3.3: Functional Portrait: Self Portrait while drawing, Marta De Menezes,

2002, Photography and functional magnetic resonance scans printed on

canvas

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her self and others perform a series of tasks such as drawing, playing an

instrument etc.

In her self- portrait the red areas indicate the detection of high oxygen usage in

the brain, thus the parts of the brain undergoing increased activity(Wilson,2010,

p.70).

Her attempt to capture the physiology, morphology of the brain as well as

conveying her physiognomic appearance in the first and last frame acts as a

contemporary medical portrait, an intervention to the traditional portrait that

focuses only on conveying the emotional state and the physiognomic

appearance of people. Her functional portraits convey analytical morphological

and physiological information that cannot be realised without the aid of

technology; they give rise to a new genre or an extension of representations of

the physical self, generating new portrait styles.

Fig 3.4: Functional Portrait: Martin Kemp analysing a painting, Marta De

Menezes, 2002, Photography and functional magnetic resonance scans

printed on canvas

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She also made a ‘Functional portrait’ of the art historian Martin Kemp and

recorded his brain activity while he was admiring a Renaissance painting(Fig.

3.4).

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Genomic Portrait

In addition to Marta’s de Menezes’, ‘Functional portraits’, that present how the

brain works under particular tasks, it is important to mention another unusually

strange portrait, the Genomic Portrait of Sir John Sulston by Marc Quinn. In this

portrait, no anatomical parts are visible, instead the self or the physical body

has been 'reduced', 'compressed', and left with just the DNA, in a molecular

level.

Quinn's portrait was exhibited for the first time in September 2001, in the

National Portrait Gallery in London(Anker&Nelkin,2004,p.9). Sir John Sulston, is

a Nobel Prize- winning scientist and the former director of the Wellcome Trust

Sanger Center.

He played a major role in the international effort for mapping and sequencing

the human genome and led the human genetics research in the

U.K(Anker&Nelkin,2004,p.9).

What is really special about Quinn’s portrait, is the fact that it contains his DNA.

A segment of Sulston’s DNA was taken from his sperm, which was then

replicated in bacterial colonies and mounted on a mirrored- like frame. Anker

and Nelkin(2004,p.10), add: ‘‘…this portrait reflects the gazing viewer’s image

while encasing a centred overall field of creamy blots. Patterns of migrating

cells seem to appear magically’’.

Quinn thinks that this portrait is ‘the most realistic portrait in the Portrait Gallery’,

‘‘A portrait of his parents and every ancestor he ever had back to the beginning

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of the life in the universe. I like that it makes the invisible visible and brings the

inside out’’(cited in Anker&Melkin,2004,p.11).

Fig.3.5: Sir John Sulston, Marc Quinn, sample of DNA in agar jelly mounted in stainless steel, 2001 5 in. x 3 3/8 in. (127 mm x 85 mm)

It is realistic because as Sir John Sulston commented on his genomic portrait:

‘’It is not me, it is my starting point’’, and ‘‘there is enough genetic information

there to identify me’’.

Quinn's work does not only ‘invoke molecular images to query the meanings of

human identity’(Anker&Nelkin,2004,p.10). According to Wallace(2001,p.170) his

self- portrait (Self, 1991) is his way of ‘‘preserving the form and the substance of

life, providing a sort of contemporary memento mori’’. ‘Self’, 1991 is a replica of

his head casted in six pints of his own frozen blood, which depended on its own

support system of refrigeration.

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Fig. 3.6: Self, Marc Quinn, 1991, Sculpture, Artists Blood, Steel, Perspex,

and Refrigeration equipment

Quinn stated:

‘‘The thing about the preservation of Self is that is reversible. It is simply kept

frozen and thus totally dependent every moment on the freezing mechanism to

keep its form. That is dependent on the infrastructure of electrical supply, so its

kept preserved by our society, one moment at a time’’(cited in Kemp & Wallace,

2000,p.171).

This process of preserving human forms is a common element is Frederik

Ruysch’s (1638- 1731), and Quinn’s work. Ruysch’s preservations defy death

but also remind us of our own mortality. The human forms in this case are kept

‘immortal’ by refrigeration in Quinn’s Self and by balsamic vinegar preparations

in Ruysch’s babies in bottles(Fig.3.7).

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Marina Wallace(2001,p.171) mentions Julie Hansen’s words on Ruysch’s

specimen preparation that could equally correspond to Quinn’s Self:

‘‘…Always perfect without discolouration appeared to defy death… In this way

Nature was not merely imitated, but improved with artifice’’.

Fig. 3.7: Frederik Ruysch, Babe in Bottle, embalming jar, 1710

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Chen Zhen’s ‘Crystal Landscape of Inner Body’

Vs.

Vesalius’ ‘Tools for dissection’

Chen Zhen made the ‘Crystal Landscape of Inner Body’ (Fig.3.8) the year he

died from a rare blood disease. Zhen asked the glass blower to make him 12

organs, including a surgical glass bed to lay them onto.

The manner in which Zhen placed the organs on the glass surgical bed

suggests that the body’s interior is rendered in a fusion of inner and outer

landscapes. ‘Its delicacy suggests an understanding of Chinese medicine,

which treats the body as a whole rather than a robust isolated

organs’(O’Reilly,2009,p.132).

Fig. 3.8: Crystal Landscape of Inner Body, Chen Zhen, 2000.

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The crystal organs are reflected on the glass surgical bed suggesting how the

human body is affecting its surroundings, while anything in their immediate

surroundings is reflected on the organ’s surface conveying that the human body

can be affected by everything.

If we were to say that this is a self- portrait, Zhen has reproduced the organs

that were affected by this terrible rare blood disease, displaying his experience.

The crystal organs signify trauma and the fragile state of his body, acting as

votives.

There is a contrast in the experiences represented in the Crystal landscapes of

Zhen and Vesalius’ ‘Tools for dissection’. The latter, depicted all the tools of the

trade that were involved in a dissection in one of his woodcuts. Showing the

tools of the trade was a characteristic in naturalistic illustration. Vesalius is

demonstrating the physical reality of the act of dissection, which acts as a visual

proof, in order to convince the reader that the whole array of those tools ‘‘could

be used in the conduct of dissections or an entire anatomy’’(Kemp,2000,p.22).

Fig.3.9: Tools for dissection, Andreas Vesalius De Humani Corporis

Fabrica,1555, book ii, vii

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Mona Hatoum’s ‘Foreign Body’ (Corps Etrangér)

In Chen Zhen’s abstract crystal landscape of inner body, interior organs were

turned inside out and presented like a landscape. In Hatoum’s installation,

medical procedures like endoscopy and coloscopy, penetrate the interior of her

body turning the invisible internal workings of our body to visible without

sacrificing it.

The title of the installation- ‘Corps Etrangér’ or ‘Foreign body’(Fig.4.1) is

metaphoric. Procedures like endoscopy and coloscopy are majorly invasive but

not deadly. Cameras are used to record the visuals from the procedure.

According to Hatoum, ‘’The camera is in a sense this alien device introduced

from the outside’’ and the ‘‘foreign body also refers literally to the body of a

foreigner’’(cited in Hatoum et al,.2002,p.125).

Hatoum’s comments on her experience from this medical procedure and said ‘’It

had to be my body’’, because the work was all about her body being ‘’probed,

invaded, violated, deconstructed’’ by scientific procedures. Her body is looked at

so closely that is becomes genderless. She adds:

‘‘…You have the body of a woman projected onto the floor. You can walk all

over it. It’s debased, deconstructed, objectified…it’s the fearsome body of the

woman as constructed by the society’’(cited in Hatoum et al., 2002,pp.125-26).

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Fig:4.1: Corps Etrangér, Mona Hatoum, 1994, video installation

The video recording is projected on to the floor and enclosed within a circular

structure. When you enter its dark and the containment of the projected image,

along with the audio recordings from the echogram of the heartbeat and

breathing, a strong audio-visual force is created and the spectator becomes the

camera. The camera goes over past the eyes and then down over some skin

and then ‘‘it enters an orifice, dividing into the, moist, pink depths’’, O’Reilly

(2009,p.132)writes. Suddenly, we find ourselves within a vortex, going down

the rabbit hole, on a spectacularly enigmatic journey. Archer et al.(1997,p.71)

adds:

‘‘The experience of this work seems to mix the emotively subjective and the

objectively documentary in an almost hallucinatory way for each spectator…’’.

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The installation swallows you and ‘‘it activates all sorts of fears and insecurities

about the devouring womb, the vagina dentate, the castration complex’’,

Hatoum adds in an interview with Antoni(in Hatoum et al.,2002,p.126-27).

How differently is the body represented in this fascinating and peculiar

installation? Once more artists are showing us that there is much more about

the representation of the body that falls outside traditional modes of

portraiture(O’Reilly,2009,p.133).

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Katharine Dowson’s ‘Microcosm’

Katharine Dowson’s work has been engaged with the idea of the body as a

‘lesser world’; with the idea of the body as a symbol of microcosm and

macrocosm(Kemp&Wallace,2000,p.167).

Dowson greatly values the vision and visualisation epitomised by Renaissance

art and science and is captivated by Leonardo’s anatomical drawings and his

ability to form visual analogies of blood vessels, bones and muscles in isolation

and compare their structure with elements from the natural world. According to

Kemp and Wallace(2000,p.167), the artist compares the textures of internal

organs to stones, corals and vegetation, with a textile analogy, as the ‘lining and

padding’ of the human body.

In her sculpture, ‘Spine’, 1992, she used resin, glass, wire and silicon to

reproduce the spine with the brain attached to it(Fig.4.2). She used the same

materials in her work ‘Examine’(Fig.4.3), in 1995.

She mixes wax, which is a traditional anatomical modelling material with

modern plastics. The glass exterior surrounding ‘Spine’, recalls anatomical

museum specimens. In her work ‘Examine’, a magnifier is installed, magnifying

the texture of the lungs, in order for her to closely examine surfaces.

Contemporary artists like Dowson, pursue to make work that celebrates the

relationship between Art and Science. Dowson was commissioned to create

work for the Wellcome Trust and the show for the book ‘Spectacular Bodies, a

History of Anatomical art from Leonardo to Now’, at the Hayward Gallery in

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London. Martin Kemp and Marina Wallace who are also the authors of the book

curated the show.

Fig.4.2 (Left): Spine, Katharine Dowson, resin, wax, silicon, 1992

Fig4.3 (Right): Examine, Katharine Dowson, resin, wax, glass, magnifying

glass, 1995

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Andrew Carnie- Magic ‘Dendrite’ Forest

In order for Andrew Carnie to find ways of visualising the growth of neurones

and find out how memories are formed, he worked with the developmental

neurobiologist Richard Wingate. Dr. Wingate researches neural anatomy and

neuronal migration that he then relates to genetic patterning(Ede,2005,p.101).

The result was a walk-in installation called ‘Magic Forest’ that portrayed how

memories are formed. 162 slides are projected onto 3 voile screens portraying

areas of the brain that are being filled with neurones(Fig.4.4). Living brain cells

conduct signals by forming dendrites, which form further connections known as

synapses and eventually recede to dissolution(Wilson,2010,p.68).

Carnie captured the dendrites by using the latest technology, such as a laser-

scanning confocal microscope. Carnie then drew them with the help of

computer-imaging techniques and stained them with fluorescent dyes. The

images where then projected onto layers of fabric(Ede,2005,p.102).

Carnie’s work recalls microcosmical notions of the past; he translated the

formation of memories by forming a strong botanical visual analogy of that of

forests. By offering the visual analogy of dendrites forming in the brain, Carnie’s

interpretation can be translated into a ‘felt sensation of the phenomenon of

memory’. Carnie’s installation creates an evanescence and dreamy

environment that triggers the feeling of mystery, which is common when a forest

surrounds us.

Ede(2005,p.103)writes:

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‘‘Forests have been locations of mystery, fear and surprise since humans were

hunter- gatherers and made up stories about them, which have filtered into our

individual if not our collective unconscious. The seemingly randomised way in

which we access our personal memories feels a little forest-like’’.

Explaining how the brain works and how a series of synapses triggers

memories in the brain is complicated. Science has been preoccupied with this

quest for many years. Carnie pursues to give his own representation of how

memories are formed by forming a microcosmical environment. He is convinced

that artists and scientists can benefit from each other’s work. He states:

‘‘[a]rt is too important to be left to artists- science is too important to be left to

scientists’’(cited in Wilson, 2010,p.68).

Fig.4.4: Magic Forest, Andrew Carnie, 2004, slide-dissolve work, two

projectors, 162 slides, 3 voile screens

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Conclusion

Artists and scientists have a long history of mutually beneficial collaborations.

Back in the 16th century, artists were essential for the representation of the

human body, from anatomical drawing to wax sculptures. The anatomised body

appeared as an empathetic idealised being. However, with scientific innovations

such as the X- Ray and Photography becoming a large part of our everyday

visual culture, Artist’s were liberated from naturalistic representations of the

anatomised body. Now their curiosity is directed underneath the skin- searching

for alternative realities and explanations for their own experiences of the human

body.

Paradigms due to scientific discoveries and the invention of radical imaging

techniques in the 19th century have influenced both art and science. The

representations of the human body in Picasso’s work marked the evolution in

painting, which has been influenced by scientific paradigms. Sixty years later

feminists sought to reflect their own experience by using cellular imagery in their

work.

In the past, the aim of anatomical drawings was to explore human nature, layer

by layer. The phrase ‘Know thyself’ justifies this exploration. Nowadays, in the

21st century, radical imaging techniques enrich the physiological and

morphological information, providing alternative views of our inner and outer

self. However, some contemporary artists are influenced from Microcosmical

philosophies of the past, continuing the work of natural philosophers, which

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sought to explain the workings of the body through botanical or natural

analogies.

The use of radical imaging techniques have become materials of art or catalysts

which enabled contemporary artists to extend the parameters of their art giving

rise in alternative representations of the human body experience. Both

disciplines have been preoccupied with questions about life and death since

forever. After centuries of investigations on the inner workings of our bodies

how differently can the human experience be represented through art and

science collaborations in the 21st century?

Is Bio/Art becoming the new revolutionary movement…?

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