Bodies Revealed Exhibtion

The other week I took the time to go and view an exhibition that I have been looking forward to seeing for some time now.

Bodies Revealed is an exhibition held in the centre of Liverpool on Paradise Street located at Liverpool One. The duration of the exhibition is from Saturday 1st September to Wednesday 2nd January. I would recommend that if you get the time go and view it. It is truly an extraordinary and unique experience.

 

 

Bodies Revealed is a wonderfully enriching experience that astounds and informs all at the same time, allowing visitors to get up and close to pieces of work that explore deep within the human body. It is very intimate and informative way of viewing the human body. 

Using an innovative process of preservation, Bodies Revealed showcases over 200 real human bodies and specimens that are displayed in a respectful and tasteful way that gives us an amazing insight into the inner beauty of the human body.

The process that allows for these specimens to be displayed is called polymer preservation, a form of permanently preserving the human tissue using liquid silicone rubber. This stops any form of decay,

offering thousands of unique teaching possibilities for educators at all levels. Preparation time varies: a small organ may take only a week, while a full-body specimen may take up to a year to prepare.

After quality preservation, specimens can last for decades.

The exhibition displays a range of specimens that include; skeletal, muscular, nervous, respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, endocrine, and circulatory.

 

 

Artist Research

Over the years that I have been morphing and shaping my original idea, I have been researching into artists who not only inspire my work but also explore subject matter that appeals to my interest as it deals with areas that I direct my own in.
I have collected numerous amounts of work from all different styles of artist, been to countless exhibitions and researched into all kinds of methods that are used to create certain pieces of work. In doing this I have developed a greater understanding of how to create and execute my own work, and as you will see further on the techniques I have encountered are relevant to this project in particular.
For this project I want to just briefly show/talk about the artists whom have influenced this idea, and what pieces of work specifically have caught my imagination to constantly be changing my original idea into what it has become today.

Damien Hurst - A British artist who is the most prominent of the group "Young British Artists".
A central theme for Hurst's work is death, best known for his "Natural History" series, in which animals are preserved, sometimes cut up and preserved in formaldehyde.
His work has been an exploration of mortality, a traditional subject that he has updated and extended with wit, verve, originality and force.

'Mother and Child Divided', 1993

four glass walled tanks, cow and calf bisected,

Bruce  Nauman - A contemporary American artist who's pluralistic  practise spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing and performance.
He finds inspiration in the activities, speech and materials of everyday life.
He concentrates more on the way in which a process or activity can transform or become a work of art rather than the development of a characteristic style. Nauman examines life in all it's gory detail, mapping the human arc between life and death.

'Four Pairs of Heads (wax)', 1991

wax, resin, rebar, wire 

'Fifteen Pairs of Hand', 1996

white bronze, painted steel bases

Marc Quinn - A British Artist and a member of the group Young British Artists, Quinn's work divulges into different disciplines of art such as sculpture, paintings and drawings. His work often deals with the distanced relationship we have with our bodies highlighting how the conflict between the ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ has a grip on the contemporary psyche.

Self, 2006

8pints (4.5Litres) of his own blood

 

The Selfish Gene, 2007

Patinated bronze

Antony Gormley - A British sculptor who is best know for works that include "the Angel of the North" and "Another Place", both public sculptures that are set up in different parts of England.
Gormley  has been quoted as describing his work as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live."
The majority of Gormley's work is based on moulds that have been taken from his own body or
as he puts it "the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside."
The subject matter and essence behind his work is to treat the body as though it were a place rather than an object, and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings.

Lost Subject I, 1997

 

Rhizome III, 1999



Time Management

	October		November		December		January
Week1	Research		Research		Blog		Blog
	Blog		Blog		Technology		Construction
			Construction		Production		Installation
Week2	Research		Research		Blog		Blog
	Blog		Blog		Technology		Installation
	Tests		Videoing
	Construction
Week3	Blog		Blog		Blog		Blog
	Construction		Videoing		Technology		Installation
					Construction
Week4	Blog		Blog		Blog		Blog
	Construction		Videoing		Construction		Installation

Risk Assessment

As construction/production of this project progresses I have no doubt that I will face challenges/complications or even begin to explicate my idea, which may cause it to change and develop according over time.

I have taken the time to look over some beneficial factors that may cause a problem over the duration of this project and incur some set backs.

Time Constraints - My deadline for the completion of this project is the first week of February 2013 which gives me little under 4 months to bring my vision to life. Some parts may take longer than what I initially imagine in my mind to complete, so my time needs to be spaced and set out evenly and realistically.
I have a part time job and other modules on my University course to keep focus of whilst doing this project, so they add another element of constraint to the mix.
I'll need to have complete dedication and determination to juggle all of these things, and to complete this project to the highest standard that I want to achieve.

Construction - When construction begins on the centre piece of my installation, the tree, there are many things that could go wrong.
I am not new to making such a huge construction, especially the way in I will be making it which will be mainly out of Herculite plaster and Alginate moulds to create the body casts that will build at least 80% of the tree.
I have a lot of support around me from friends who like me have an art background, and have had some experience with these materials. This will make it easier for me having this support and the opinions of other people, but this doesn't necessarily mean that I won't be met with problems.

Availability - The core of this project entails requiring a range of materials and equipment that may not always be at my disposal due to stock or even high demand. This can range from anything such as renting out camera equipment to buying plaster or even chicken wire.
I will have to research into exploring a range of sources that can supply me with the equipment that I need, because having more than one available source will mean there will always be a fall back for me to be able to purchase materials.
Camera equipment can be booked from my University, but this isn't always dependable as I am not always going to be guaranteed the equipment I need. Luckily I have friends who own their own professional camera equipment so if needed I can always get in contact with them as a fail safe.

Cost - I already know that life casting equipment doesn't come cheap, and due to the experimentation I will be carrying out  I will have to not only make sure I have enough of certain products to carry out my process, I will also need to find value for money.
One of my best options for acquiring cheap materials is probably searching on sites such as Ebay and Amazon, taking into account delivery times. These will be the best sites to obtain most of the materials I need in which to construct my tree.
Obviously they won't always have everything I need so again I will need to shop around and find various sources, comparing prices, and compile up a list of places I can go.

Videoing/Casting - Videoing the visuals I want to be projected from my tree will be as much of a task as the actual build of my sculpture. Without the visuals the tree itself is sort of meaningless, therefore equal time and dedication needs to be taken for both sides of the project as both are just as important as one another.
Just like the build of  the tree I will have the help from my friends to carry out the videoing process, which should make the task some what easier. This also comes with its own set of problems as I will have to depend on my friends to be available when I need to shoot footage, and surely we won't always be available at the same time. Therefore some kind of time schedule will have to be put into play and a lot of communication will be necessary.
Along with the recording I will have to cast actors to take part in the footage I will be shooting. This will take time advertising available parts, and casting suitable actors. Hopefully people I already know will be willing to take part in my project, but if not then a wide range of advertising will have to take place to reach a large audience of potential actors.

New Technologies - This project will involve me learning a few new technologies that I have never encountered before. This will be another area of the project that will involve some form of experimentation which can be time consuming, and also result in failure of performing the tasks I want it to carry out if I learn that I am not able to understand the technology, or if It can not do the things I want it to do. Like every other aspect of this project a contingency plan will have to be thought up in case of this failure.
Convieniantly some of the technologies that could be intergrated into my project and achieve the level of interactivity in which I am trying to display are main components in some of my modules at University at the moment. This means I will be getting some level of interaction with them, which should cut down any time I would have been using trying to gain an understanding of them.

I will have to take all of these key points into account when it comes to planning the time management of creating my installation. Some areas I feel I can improvise and work around, were as others will need some kind of back up plan ready set in place just in case of any trouble. Having these back up plans will mean that I won't eat into the time that I have to complete my installation.
It is a bulky task to carry out in such a short amount of time, but I feel that with the support around me and my desire to complete this project I will be able to accomplish what I have set out to do, and to the best of my abilities.

Inspiration

The idea for my installation dates back all the way to my College education where I studied Fine Art and then enrolled in an Art Foundation course. My whole entire educational experience has been heavily art influenced as I find it to be one of my strongest attributes, which I have always tried to pursue.
In my 2nd year of College I became enthralled within the nature of body sculpture and began focusing the area of my work around life casting.
I've always had a heavy interest in body manipulation/modification, the philosophies and beliefs of life and death, and the concept of time. I suddenly became emerged in trying to sculpt objects that explored these certain areas in more depth, expanding on them to ask questions of relevance and of explainable nature.
One of the first pieces I made was a repeating cast of my foot which I joined together in a circular motion. Here I was just exploring how body parts, either similar or different, could join together and from different perspectives create an imagery of something that you have experienced in life.
This sculpture reminded some people of a volcano but immediately to me it reminded me of the roots of a tree sinking into the ground. Ever since creating this I have always wanted to expand the idea and create an entire tree made entirely out of body parts.

Since coming to University I have learnt so many different techniques and used various technologies that I had never come into contact with before on my iMedia course, and it's only been a matter of time before I was given a project were I could finally incorporate the idea that I have had for nearly 7 years now.
Over that 7 year period I have been able to add substance to my original idea and develop it so far from being just a sculpture of  a manipulated tree that has no meaning, focus or appeal. The only way I have been able to do this is through my own personal growth and through the skills that I have learnt on my iMedia course. I have been able to adapt my ideas with the knowledge that I gathered over my three years to create expansion and depth to what I originally wanted to create.

Idea Specifications

• The tree will be mainly made out of limbs that have been body casted. These cast will be made from Herculite plaster because of its durability, and also it's capability of capturing detail.
• The molds will be made from Alginate or Silcone depending on price and availability. Both are capable materials for creating the molds but Silcone lasts longer meaning more casts can be made from just one mold rather than with Alginate.
• The trunk of the tree will be built from chicken wire and plaster.
• I want there to be a sense of realism so I am aiming to making the sculpture look exactly like a tree. I can accomplish this with the right paints, and a few techniques that will have to be experiment with. Saw dust could be added to PVA glue and spread over the entire surface. Wooden veneers could be used or even tissue paper. Another possibility is projection mapping but I doubt that will be even considered as I want people to touch the sculpture and believe it's an actual tree, and this wouldn't be achieved with projection mapping.
• The trunk of the tree will need to be built around the measurements of the projector that is going to be hidden inside of it so that it can fit. There must be enough space so that the projector isn't touching the actual trunk of the tree but close enough so that the out put isn't distorted or obscured.
• Ventilation within the tree is necessary because the projector has such a great heat output that it could cause a fire if there is no way for the heat to escape.
• Because I am going for a sense of realism I want real organs to be used for the triggers. The only way I can complete this is if I get animal organs, such as cow or pig organs as they have the most resemblance to human organs. These will have to be obtained from an abattoir and collected at the last point of completing the sculpture.
• The organs will be encased say that they do no deteriorate or smell. Another experiment will have to be carried out to see which will work the best at encasing the organs. Materials already in mind are PVA glue, Liquid Latex and Resin.
• If organs cannot be obtained I will make models of the organs to be used or even buy model organs, then modify them for realism.
• The videos I will be shooting will all be shot from a first person perspective to give the user the sense that they are seeing it all from the point of view of the persons memories they are watching.
• Each clip will last approximately 5 seconds, giving the user little snippets, "flashes" so to speak of the persons memories.
• The videos themselves will document variations in time to show the life span of the person. These variations will consist of visuals from that persons infancy, childhood, adolescence  and adulthood (Human Life Cycle).
• The want the installation itself to act as a way of getting people to interact with the tree rather than straying away from it. I will try and accomplish this by maybe having some kind of walk way up to and around the tree that blocks people off from being able to go around the whole room, but forces them to get up close and personal with the tree.

Proposal

For my final major proect I am proposing to create an interactive installation which will revolve around visually displaying the idea of a person experiencing their memories flashing before their eyes as they are met with death.

I want to visually and physically construct something that delves into what I have coined “the insignificance of mortality”. My goals for this installation are to encompass the little things in life, the beauty of humanity but also the parts of life that we overlook and may pass off as insignificant, so hence “the insignificance of mortality”.      

The centre piece of this installation will be a tree made entirely out of human body parts which will act as a metaphorical representation of a person and their growth through life. The focus of this tree will be made around one person and be constructed through various techniques, mainly body casting.

Users can get an insight into the person’s memories when they come into contact with one of the interactive triggers on the tree which will activate a projector hidden with inside the trunk to generate a visual display. These visuals will be displayed on the wall adjacent to the projector and will last for a short duration to represent the feeling of one’s life flashing before their eyes.

 

Each trigger will generate a series of different visuals that correspond to that certain trigger. They will produce short clips that show differentiations in time periods as to show a span of memories collected through a person's existence. These triggers will be a set of organs that will be made interactive and hang from the tree so that a person is able to come into contact with them.

 

The visuals themselves will be shot from a first person perspective as though to give the user a sense of seeing the person's memories through their actual eyes.

 

I will make it a regular duty to update this blog with the current status of my project, compiling insight into all my research that I have carried out, experimentations, construction process etc. I will try to document my work as much as possible through various media forms such as photographs, videos, sketchbooks etc. and upload them to here to keep it as up to date as possible.