What I’m finding most helpful about this class so far, is it’s providing me with a new lens through which to view formerly daunting subjects like science and math, which I usually find tedious. When I’m given the permission to view them through an artist’s eyes, they seem to come alive with possibilities and whet my appetite to know more. It's been so inspiring to be introduced to so many artists blurring the line between the two cultures, typically thanks to the use of technology. My head has been swimming with ideas.
Simultaneously, this exploration of art meets the medical world was probably the most emotionally unsettling week for me. I found Mona Hatuom’s work 'Corps Etranger' (mentioned in the MRI as Portrait reading) particularly... shall we say... disgusting. The exhibit consists of a round room wherein the viewer is treated to a close up view of her endoscopy. Orlan’s body-based art was somehow less unsettling but more shocking (in a good way). To me, her quest to document her pursuit of beauty ideals is akin to our culture’s relationship with the meat industry -- how we want to eat it but we don't want to see how it’s made. Similarly, we want to see beauty but not the pain that goes into creating it. Our culture wants to dictate and control female beauty but we don’t want to see the contortions that women put themselves through to achieve it, which is to me what Orlan is attempting to challenge. 
I’m finding that I’m really disturbed by art that exposes the inside of things. I ran across this work by Laurin Dopfner in which he uses an industrial sander to peel away the layers of inanimate objects. It strongly reminded me of the Visible Human Project, the process of slicing an external body into thin cuts, revealing each layer along the way. I’m not sure I would have found the camera reveal art as disturbing if I wasn’t simultaneously studying the Visible Human Project, but either way I would have found it fascinating.
On the positive side of things, I loved the discussion of medicine originally being seen as an art and not a science, and loved the connection made between original anatomical drawings functioning as a game changer for both artists and doctors/scientists. Another favorite was Diane Gromala‘s TED talk and her work with virtual reality to combat physical pain. I found it nearly impossible to determine if I would call her an artist or a scientist, bringing it back to the first week’s discussion of Third Culture.
I also remembered a work I’d seen at the Palm Springs Contemporary Art Show a few years ago, Blood Work by Jordan Eagles He works with bovine blood, copper and resin to create absolutely stunning color masterpieces.
Probably my biggest takeaway from the week was my fascination with Kevin Warwick’s Cyborg 2.0 project, where he implanted an electrode ray in his left arm to transmitted his nerve signals to robot arms. He’s also connected neurally with his wife and they are capable of sending messages in Morse code to each other directly from brain to brain (what the ????). Hello, has nobody considered that you could use this technology to take down a casino or win a game show or ... the (illegal) possibilities are endless. My husband writes crime thrillers, so I immediately drew his attention to the possibilities for using this real-life technology in story. Warwick is another one of those innovators who I would be hard pressed to make a decision between calling him an artist or calling him a scientist.
(Above is Didou's MRI-influenced sculpture, Eco, which I just wanted to include somehow because I loved it!)
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'Eco' Sculpture by Didou
Hi Autumn,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week, I thought it was a honest depiction of the uneasiness that many people experience when the innards of the relationship between art and medicine are exposed. Orlan’s work is a fascinating testament to the redefinition of beauty. What I like about her work is that the grotesque and beautiful are not to be viewed differently. She makes a point to express that societal judgments only serve to limit us from understanding the true elegance of the body as a personalized work of art (and as you mentioned, an important part of this means seeing the pain and suffering that was gone in to create this beauty).
Hi autumn
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that seeing the insides of the body increases shock factor of a project. I think that is due to the fact that it is not normally seen, and we are not accustomed to the visual of the inside of our own bodies. I also was delighted to know that medicine was originally considered an art form. Hopefully one day art and medicine will be more intertwined.