Art and the theatre of mind and body: how contemporary arts practice is re-framing the anatomo-clinical theatre

Abstract

The correspondences and disparities between how artists and anatomists view the body have historically been a source of creative collaboration, but how is this imaginative interdisciplinarity sustained and expressed in a contemporary context? In this review I suggest that contemporary artists engaging with the body, and the corresponding biomedical and architectural spaces where the body is investigated, are engendering innovative and challenging artworks that stimulate new relationships between art and anatomy. Citing a number of examples from key artists and referencing some of my own practice-based research, I posit that creative cross-fertilization provokes a discourse between mediated public perceptions of disease, death and the disposal of morbid remains, and the contemporary reality of biomedical practice. This is a dialogue that is complex, rich and diverse, and ultimately rewarding for both art and anatomy.

Fig. 1

The Epitome or title page to Andreas Vesalius’ 1543 De Humani Corporis Fabrica by artist Jan Stephan van Calcar, courtesy of The Wellcome Library, London.

Fig. 2

Book cover, Anatomy Live: Performance and the Operating Theatre, Ed. Maaike Bleeker, University of Amsterdam Press, 2008.

Fig. 3

The performance artist Stelarc explains his artwork Extra Ear: Ear on Arm Project at the CIANT/Leonardo conference Mutamorphosis in Prague, 2007.

Fig. 4

Rembrandt, 1606–1669, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, 1632, courtesy of Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Fig. 5

Book cover, Anatomy Lessons, Karen Ingham, 2004.

Fig. 7

Image of reconstructive hand surgery from Just Another Day, Karen Ingham and Ffotogallery, 2000.

Fig. 6

The Anatomy Lesson of Professor Moxham, from Anatomy Lessons, Karen Ingham, 2004.

Fig. 9

Orpheus Rising, from Anatomy Lessons.

Fig. 8

Edinburgh Anatomy Museum, from Anatomy Lessons.

Fig. 10

Installation shot: Cardiff Dissecting Room, Anatomy Lessons.

Fig. 12

Installation shot: Dissecting Room Guy’s/Kings College London, Anatomy Lessons.

Fig. 11

Installation shot: Old Operating Theatre Museum London, Anatomy Lessons.

Fig. 14

Installation shot: Vanitas: Seed-Head, projected digital film.

Fig. 13

Installation shot: Vanitas, durational, site-specific installation at The Waag, Amsterdam, 2005.

Fig. 19

Installation shot: ‘Bio-botanical Test Tube Vanitas II’ from Seeds of Memory: art, neuroscience and botany, Karen Ingham, 2006.

Fig. 18

See My Thoughts, developmental artwork from ‘Theatres of Memory’, Karen Ingham, 2008.

Fig. 17

Magic Forest, Andrew Carnie, courtesy of the artist, 2002.

Fig. 16

‘Going Native’ in Scribing the Soul, Susan Aldworth, courtesy of the artist, 2008.

Fig. 15

‘A seated male figure looking through a camera obscura’, Gerard Vandergucht’s engraving for William Cheselden’s Osteographia,1733, courtesy of The Wellcome Library, London.

Fig. 20

Narrative Remains, Karen Ingham and The Royal College of Surgeons of England Hunterian Museum.