New USC exhibit explores anatomy and medicine as art

The human body is a constant source of wonder and learning. It proves to be an elusive thing, full of mysteries to figure out in its form and function.

Four artists with very different approaches to the study of anatomy and medicine and working media have come together for a new exhibit, “Arte Corporis: Exploring the Anatomical Body,” opening Monday, March 7 at USC’s McMaster Gallery.

Here, excerpts from the artist statements about their work:

Melissa Gwyn, associate professor (painting, drawing), University of California Santa Cruz: “The subjects of growth, excess and collapse have been central to my work for more than 20 years ... I often think of my father’s admonition about taking things too far: ‘You don’t want to guild the lily.’ But, with affection for my father, I contend that ‘gilding the lily’ is exactly what makes sense to me in these times. Nature in artifice, artifice in nature, conservation, restoration, death of painting, reanimation and artificial life, it seems a gilded lily is the emblem in the back of my mind.”

Dawn Hunter, associate professor of art (studio art), University of South Carolina School of Visual Art and Design: “My new body of artwork is a series comprised of drawings and painting that are biographically about Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience ... After I read his autobiography, there was a part of me that felt like some key aspects of Cajal (his humor, and how he imagined himself – particularly during his childhood) were often absent from the mainstream discussions of him and his work. One day I was lamenting this and then it occurred to me that as an artist, I could create works that expressed biographical and metaphorical interpretations of his life and his internal world.”

Lisa Temple-Cox, artist and independent researcher, Cuckoo Farm Studios, Colchester, United Kingdom: “It is important to note that all my drawings are done in situ, sometimes remaining unfinished: the process of working from life imbues each image with all the sensory data attendant to its location. Sounds, smells, overheard conversations and bodily sensations enter the drawing alongside the marks of pencil or pen. Drawing blurs the interstice between viewer and object – there is an exchange: art as enactment of the Locard principle*. An image is taken: but something of myself is left behind, resonating in the brittle light of the cabinet, the fragile glass of the jar.”

Mallory Weherell, assistant professor of art and head of ceramics, University of Nebraska at Kearney: “My work is figurative in nature, but not in the traditional sense of the word ...With each piece, I use emotional associations linked to various anatomies of the human body – the gut as a metaphor for raw instinctual emotion, a lung to express the need for air. I then manipulate these cellular tissues, organs and overall system structures in order to explore specific and personal relationships.”

The exhibit is held in conjunction with USC’s two-day symposium “Art, Anatomy and Medicine since 1700,” a showcase of scholarly papers addressing visual, theoretical, cultural, historical and/or contemporary connections, relationships, conflicts and/or collaborations among the visual arts, anatomy and dissection, and medicine from the 18th century to the present. The symposium will be held March 31 and April 1 at the Columbia Museum of Art.

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 4:25 PM with the headline "New USC exhibit explores anatomy and medicine as art."