AnatoArt, curated by Abi McLeod, is a new exhibition in the Cultural Centre in Victoria’s Citadel that runs until the 31st of October.
The exhibition is an artistic exploration of anatomy by future doctors studying at Queen Mary University of London in Malta, on the Gozo Hospital Campus.
Abi McLeod explained that it offers “a fascinating insight into both our own bodies and the hearts and minds of first and second year medical students as they set out to become clinical practitioners, the lifeblood of our medical system.”
The exhibition comprises a series of 38 works in many media – from pencil, biro, pastel and paint to collage, fabric, and even Play-Doh (although in many cases you’d think it was ceramics), all of which were created during a two-week ‘Anatomy through Art and Mindfulness’ course with Abi.
There’s a wide range of body parts, with a preponderance of hearts, spines and hands, underlying their importance, perhaps, to our physical form and our emotional lives. Whilst designed to strengthen students’ knowledge of human anatomy and remind them of the miracle of life and healing, the course also encouraged students to apply mindfulness in everyday life.
The art is presented in an array of different styles, with some created on brown or rough-hewn paper evoking the roughness of real life. “They hint perhaps at the ‘unavoidable mess’ of delving into the human body,” said Abi.
She went on to say that the medical school students at QMU are very fortunate to have body dissection as part of their curriculum. “It’s a time-honoured way to explore the human body, with respect, as if working with a first patient.”
Many works are framed, some white, some black which subliminally emphasises that while people globally, in Malta and on the QMU course have widely different appearances, the bodily systems and structures as portrayed are all basically the same wherever anyone comes from.
One wall has a line-up of musculature and skeletal forms in 3D relief on the page. They’re visceral and athletic as if they might leap from the dissecting table with youth and vigour.
Opposite, an open medicine cabinet with an array of organs as if a person looked inside a body and found them laid out inside. These stitched textile pieces include an eye, kidneys, a liver and a spleen -their simplicity of form belying their metabolic complexity.
Above it hang two rather surreal pieces, a set of ribs is reminiscent of a ten-legged arachnid, reminding us of our direct links to the animal kingdom whilst the other, a blossoming heart, celebrates the amazing surprise of life and the incredible things that can be done.
“It’s great to see this show in a community space, a reflection of the active participation of the medical school and its students in Gozo society,” says Professor Anthony Warrens, Dean for Education. “The exhibition also illustrates how medical education has developed over the last four decades, with an increased focus on the interface between science and humanities.”
There’s a long history of studying anatomy through drawing, and two pieces that hang together in one corner bring Leonardo Da Vinci and his Vitruvian Man to mind. Da Vinci made significant contributions to medicine through his detailed precise sketches of bones, muscles, organs, and the vascular system and influenced the development of medical illustration, combining art and science.
The first, a mixed media piece of collaged vertebrae on black, references algebra and geometry, a reminder of the science at the root of medical learning, research and practice. The second, a pencil drawing is drawn with anatomical precision, delicate shading, and an eerily deadened expression.
Alongside, hangs a mixed media collage Consciousness by Hamidah Kolawole. On a cut-through of a head, a head is shown in profile, the brain is subdivided into lobes in different hues.
“This, for me, is the star of the show,” says art and culture journalist Esther Lafferty. “Step closer, and you’ll see text on the lips, a phrase on truth. This is an implicit comment that it was as hominids brains enlarged that we developed our advanced facility for deception. The words pasted into the vertebrae suggest deeper meanings too, a reminder that these students are learning far more than anatomy as they study here.”
“I was also taken by a pair of velvet lungs, the opulent rich red fabric a reminder that oxygen absorption is a precious process which we should treasure,” she said. “And keep your eyes peeled for two wine glasses clinking in a colourful stylised ‘x-ray’ of the abdomen. It’s a fun piece, almost anthropomorphic: I almost expected to burst into song.”
“And as some of the works focus on soft tissues, whilst others depict bones, I’d love to know whether the students who created the former go on to specialise in internal medicine and the bone brigade opt for orthopaedic,” said Ms Lafferty.
Although an exhibition on body parts might seem perfectly-timed for Halloween – and it is a family-friendly selection of art that will delight and intrigue children of all ages – this show is full of heart, warmth and humanity. “The display represents the classroom,” said Abi. “It’s friendly rather than clinical; colourful and quirky. We’re welcoming individuality and celebrating people’s individual strengths, our similarities and our differences.”
Photos: Some of the works on display – below Abi McLeod and Hamidah Kolawole