Crafting Anatomies placed the human body at the centre of a multi-disciplinary dialogue; exploring how this entity has been interpreted, crafted and reimagined in historical, contemporary and future contexts.
The exhibition dissected attitudes and approaches towards contexts of the body by showcasing visionary practices of leading international artists, clinicians and designers. These items were featured alongside anatomical exhibits selected from historical collections including films from The Wellcome Trust archive.
Organs crafted by silk worms, bespoke jewellery cultured from human skin cells, and couture garments constructed using plastic surgery cutting techniques were just some of the speculative projects that were on display.
43 practitioners in total took part, including, Shelly Goldsmith, Amy Congdon, Richard Arm, John Pacey-Lowrie, Juliana Sissons, Karen Ingham, Marloes ten Bhömer, The Human Harp Project, and many more.
A series of talks, demonstrations and workshops accompanied the exhibition, culminating in a symposium which highlighted the rigour in approaches to this subject by the individuals featured in the show.
This exhibition was curated by Amanda Briggs-Goode, Rhian Solomon and Katherine Townsend – members of the Creative Textiles Research Group at Nottingham Trent University.
Crafting prosthetic eyes
Wednesday 14 January 2015, 5 pm – 9 pm
As part of the Special Preview Event ocularist John Pacey-Lowrie gave a demonstration on how to craft prosthetic eyes. John has 35 years’ experience in bespoke ocular prosthetics. He is one of an extremely small group of talented practitioners who design, manufacture and hand-paint ocular prostheses.
Pattern cutting inspired by plastic surgery
Saturday 17 January 2015, 10 am – 3 pm
Surgical techniques in cloth to create simple garments with Juliana Sissons.
Crafting anatomies to train surgeons
Wednesday 21 January 2015, 3.30 pm – 4.30 pm
Composite material specialist Richard Arm talked about his groundbreaking project that simulates human hearts to train surgeons.
Friday 30 January 2015
This one day symposium explored the curious practices of a selection of Crafting Anatomies’ exhibitors, highlighting a preoccupation with the human condition in a breadth of exploratory contexts.
Enquiries
If you have any questions or enquiries about the Crafting Anatomies events listing please email craftinganatomies@ntu.ac.uk
The Crafting Anatomies project places the human body at the centre of a multi-disciplinary dialogue; exploring how this entity has been interpreted, crafted and re-imagined in historical, contemporary and future contexts.
This one-day symposium will explore the curious practices of a selection of Crafting Anatomies’ exhibitors, highlighting a preoccupation with the human condition in a breadth of exploratory contexts.
Delegates will also have the opportunity to visit the Crafting Anatomies exhibition in conjunction with this event and see ocularist and Crafting Anatomies exhibitor, John Pacey-Lowrie, as he demonstrates his craft of creating prosthetic eyes.
© Marloes ten Bhömer Courtesy Stanley Picker Gallery