My work on this project started at the end of Digital Image and Culture which was in my previous year of study. I started to investigate the medical scan and how I could utilise this in my photography.  In my final assignment I used the medical scan and tried to imagine it in different contexts; framed and hung on the wall of an art gallery with a neat white card describing the works or as a child’s toy again presented as artworks but this time exploring idea of more 3-dimensional tactile works with obvious connection to childhood.

 

This year’s study has shifted my focus in many different directions, from the medical scan, to boxes, to the symbolism and proxies for death, to memorials and memory. I always thought of my art ending up in some kind of gallery setting but have not fully decided on this yet. This blog post gives me space to consider how, even at this early stage, I might find the best way to communicate my ideas and how by considering how to communicate these ideas, this might feed back into my creative and written work for next year.

I created a test image using a lightbox showing an x-ray of a plant and a hand. This idea might be an interesting way to display my work showing work either as backlit transparencies or maybe on computer monitors. The pure white of the screen and stripping away any complexity and just showing the x-ray of a series of different plants of flowers might be quite effective. Am not convinced this method of display is best suited to works away from my idea of an x-ray but this is something to keep at the back of my mind.

 

 

When I was last in hospital with son earlier this year, I found an exhibition exploring neuroscience. It was titled the Cajal Embroidery Project: In Celebration of Neuroscience. It consisted of a series of embroideries made by neuroscientists, some new to embroidery, established artists and experienced embroiderers.

Aside from the project which was very interesting, what tweaked my interest was that there was a gallery space inside a hospital.

Could there be a space better suited for my project? The downside of a gallery space in a hospital is that my project explores death, grief, loss and memory. Would a hospital wish to display works in this field? How might that make the patients feel?

 

 

 

 

 

It seems to me that hospitals despite being places where we have shifted death to from our homes, do not like to speak of death in a public way. This is something to think more about in the coming year

Another exhibition I saw was the Sensory 4 Van Gogh exhibition in Edinburgh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This interested me for what might seem a silly reason. The top down projection onto the floor reminded me of a grave. This would be an interesting way to display photographs representing death. A virtual graveyard in a gallery setting.

One thought from earlier in this unit when I spoke to a doctor and asked how they dealt with everyday death. The answer was an extreme form of compartmentalisation, splitting different parts of their life into more manageable spaces. The doctor told me that for him this was almost like a form of OCD. I have wondered if I could use boxes to seperate and display my work, providing a sense of the walls built around death, cancer and especially the deaths of children in my culture and around grief which can be a very private and damaging emotion. This idea is something for me to think more about in coming year.

A few different potential choices and ideas around which I could display my work. My work could exist in a gallery setting as digital projections, a framed series of prints, a 3-dimensional artwork or even shifted out of gallery setting maybe as a book.  The choice of gallery could be highly relevant to my work although at same time that choice might conflict with my subject area. On the surface using a hospital or even projecting my works in a graveyard setting migth have a certain logic, but it might be very tricky getting permission for such ideas. One other thing to consider, which I have not yet decided on, is how much text to include to explain my work. At one extreme I could have no text and allow my audience to take their own meaning. At the other extreme I could explain my project in detail.