0 comment Thursday, May 8, 2014 | admin
In 2008, Gunther Von Haagen brought his Body Worlds exhibition to Manchester's Science & Industry museum. I visited out of pure morbid curiosity, and then wished I hadn't gone at all. For me, the plastination of corpses had not taken away any of the horror of seeing real dismembered organs splayed out in glass boxes.
Recently I have been considering the artistic and scientific merits of Gunther Von Haagens work, and came across an essay by Lucia Tanassi in The Anatomy Of Body Worlds.
The essay was named "Twilife: The Art and Science Of Consuming Death."
Tanassi raises many issues about the Body Worlds exhibition, firstly by suggesting that humans have a "curious discomfort with death" and we crave knowledge of our mortality in a clinical, non-threatening way.
The plastination in Body Worlds is designed to halt the organic process of decay, and produces
"full body specimens that are dry and odourless and can last for an indefinite amount of time."
Gunther Von Haagen aims to promote the disadvantages of obesity and smoking, but it could be argued that immediately facing tar-covered lungs feels a little too visceral.
I certainly felt sick looking at the innards of other humans!
In "Twi-life: The Art and Science Of Consuming Death", Tanassi doubts that Haagen will be successful in promoting healthy lifestyles through plastination of ruined organs.
It is believed that Gunther Von Haagen has created a "new sociology of death", wherein we are free to satisfy our curiosities by gazing upon some poor sod encased in plastic.
This particular method of viewing cadavers for educational purposes is new, but death and art have been interlinked through-out art history.
For example, Rembrandt painted "The Anatomy Lesson Of Dr Tulip" and is famous for "Vanitas" still life.
In this day and age, it is rare that we would come across a corpse.
However in previous centuries, humans were used to public executions and open-casket funerals were more common.
Tanassi explains with the concept of "twi-life" playing on the idea of an "after-life".
Tanassi imagines that through plastination, the cadavers gain a new plasticized identity and even, social life, as the public flock to view them.
In this particular "piece", Gunther Von Haagen was inspired by an anatomical drawing of a man holding all of his skin in one hand, to show his muscular structure.
In drawing form, the picture is fairly easy to confront, but conjured in to reality by Haagen, it becomes positively grotesque.
Tanassi argues that Von - Haagens message to "democratize anatomy" is overshadowed by the sheer power of human curiosity to view the dead. "The gaze" is heavily theorized in Fine Art history, so it is understandable from an artists perspective, that Tanassi would question the motive of Body World visitors.
One thing is for sure, Gunther Von Haagens work has definitely raised some debate between both the art and science field!
I would be interested to know your experiences of Gunter Von Haagens work, have you been to a Body Worlds exhibition or seen the live autopsy ?
Recently I have been considering the artistic and scientific merits of Gunther Von Haagens work, and came across an essay by Lucia Tanassi in The Anatomy Of Body Worlds.
The essay was named "Twilife: The Art and Science Of Consuming Death."
Tanassi raises many issues about the Body Worlds exhibition, firstly by suggesting that humans have a "curious discomfort with death" and we crave knowledge of our mortality in a clinical, non-threatening way.
The plastination in Body Worlds is designed to halt the organic process of decay, and produces
"full body specimens that are dry and odourless and can last for an indefinite amount of time."
Gunther Von Haagen aims to promote the disadvantages of obesity and smoking, but it could be argued that immediately facing tar-covered lungs feels a little too visceral.
I certainly felt sick looking at the innards of other humans!
In "Twi-life: The Art and Science Of Consuming Death", Tanassi doubts that Haagen will be successful in promoting healthy lifestyles through plastination of ruined organs.
It is believed that Gunther Von Haagen has created a "new sociology of death", wherein we are free to satisfy our curiosities by gazing upon some poor sod encased in plastic.
This particular method of viewing cadavers for educational purposes is new, but death and art have been interlinked through-out art history.
For example, Rembrandt painted "The Anatomy Lesson Of Dr Tulip" and is famous for "Vanitas" still life.
In this day and age, it is rare that we would come across a corpse.
However in previous centuries, humans were used to public executions and open-casket funerals were more common.
Tanassi explains with the concept of "twi-life" playing on the idea of an "after-life".
Tanassi imagines that through plastination, the cadavers gain a new plasticized identity and even, social life, as the public flock to view them.
In this particular "piece", Gunther Von Haagen was inspired by an anatomical drawing of a man holding all of his skin in one hand, to show his muscular structure.
In drawing form, the picture is fairly easy to confront, but conjured in to reality by Haagen, it becomes positively grotesque.
Tanassi argues that Von - Haagens message to "democratize anatomy" is overshadowed by the sheer power of human curiosity to view the dead. "The gaze" is heavily theorized in Fine Art history, so it is understandable from an artists perspective, that Tanassi would question the motive of Body World visitors.One thing is for sure, Gunther Von Haagens work has definitely raised some debate between both the art and science field!
I would be interested to know your experiences of Gunter Von Haagens work, have you been to a Body Worlds exhibition or seen the live autopsy ?
Labels: Art, Death, Gunther Von Haagen, Science, The Gaze
0 comment Saturday, May 3, 2014 | admin
As part of my MA Art and Science programme, we were able to have a detailed tour around the Wellcome Collection and in the Wellcome Libary.
I was at first astounded at the amount of the online resources that the Wellcome Collection provides, there is a Wellcome Film youtube channel which has over 300 videos uploaded.
There is also a huge database of images on the Wellcome Images site, which has a great selection of anatomical drawings, illustrative diagrams, lithograph prints, scientific photographs and much more!
Here are some things I personally found interesting on the tour:
BBC Source
This is an exhibited created by Gunther Von Haagen, it is a very thin slice of a human body, plastinated in the typical Haagen way.I was particularly interested in the curious way the slice has been presented, between two pieces of glass in a suitably clinical way.
source
This exhibit is the "Library Of The Genome", a publication of a human DNA sequence. The books you see here contain 3 Billion characters (genetic bases) which have been printed and published in to a volume of books. Apparently, to recite the sequence character by character would take approximately 56 years!To think that each human has a completely different DNA sequence is mind-blowing.
It was also interesting to learn that Henry Wellcome preferred to display his collection in a Darwinian style, laying out each specimen side by side.
Other things that caught my imagination include:
- Death Masks that were carved while they were still on a tree, so that "tree spirits" could animate the face.It's interesting that nature has been allowed to alter the work.
- Hair used to illustrate weeping willows inside a piece of mourning jewellery.
- Anatomical Flip-Diagrams which can be found on the Digitised Collections.
I was at first astounded at the amount of the online resources that the Wellcome Collection provides, there is a Wellcome Film youtube channel which has over 300 videos uploaded.
There is also a huge database of images on the Wellcome Images site, which has a great selection of anatomical drawings, illustrative diagrams, lithograph prints, scientific photographs and much more!
Here are some things I personally found interesting on the tour:
BBC Source
This is an exhibited created by Gunther Von Haagen, it is a very thin slice of a human body, plastinated in the typical Haagen way.I was particularly interested in the curious way the slice has been presented, between two pieces of glass in a suitably clinical way.
sourceThis exhibit is the "Library Of The Genome", a publication of a human DNA sequence. The books you see here contain 3 Billion characters (genetic bases) which have been printed and published in to a volume of books. Apparently, to recite the sequence character by character would take approximately 56 years!To think that each human has a completely different DNA sequence is mind-blowing.
It was also interesting to learn that Henry Wellcome preferred to display his collection in a Darwinian style, laying out each specimen side by side.
Other things that caught my imagination include:
- Death Masks that were carved while they were still on a tree, so that "tree spirits" could animate the face.It's interesting that nature has been allowed to alter the work.
- Hair used to illustrate weeping willows inside a piece of mourning jewellery.
- Anatomical Flip-Diagrams which can be found on the Digitised Collections.
Labels: Anatomical, Anatomy, Art, Death Masks, Dna, Gunther Von Haagen, Hair, Library Of The Genome, Mourning Jewellery, Plasticization, Sequence, The Wellcome Collection, Wellcome Collection, Youtube