anatomies

Digital Prints

1993

Torso (on back wall)
180 x 130cm
Laser prints on polyester film

This work was about the attitude of the scientific image (digital image) to the human body. Despite the rationalism of the technology some 'residue' of humanity exists - for example in the elegance of the neck or the expression of the hand. The torso is almost classical but the surface has 'gaps' (negative space) which suggests an intrusion different from dissection.

Leibnitz countered Descartes' mechanistic idea of the body by proposing that units of energy called monads 'animated' living things. The virus images referred to both the human and computer virus and to a type of energy (a monad?) that might be in the body. Derived from electron scanning microscope images the source and scale of the original objects are ambigious.

This work was produced using a combination of studio based photography and digital imaging. The images are pinned directly to the gallery wall in the manner of an anatomical chart.